Advent
by Stalker of Stories
Summary: Disillusioned early on, Kyouko does not follow Shou to Tokyo, instead remaining in Kyoto. Yet, she wonders, how would life be if she had followed him? An advent calendar of drabbles. Ren/Kyouko pairing. Rated T for safety.
1. December 11th: Ren

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, titles might be made-up words or misspelled (on PURPOSE!!! I'm a grammar nazi, trust me, it burns my eyes enough as it is), probable course language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adventitia__  
Definition: The external covering of an organ or other structure. In this instance, metaphysical._

In a closet lay a box. It wasn't the only box in the closet of course, nor was it the most interesting box in that closet; there were many interesting boxes filled with many interesting things, interesting memories of interesting times. But this box was still a little different from the others. It was _important_.

_Sun glared down on his back, the good kind of glare. He grinned, brushing blond hair out of his eyes, and kept his eyes on his father before him. They didn't have much time together, but today... today he had his father all to himself, and his heart swelled happily.  
_

The box was special. It was a simple brown cardboard box, a packing box like any other from a big move a couple of years ago. It was dusty, and a spider had made its home in the corner beside it, ready to defend its web. There were a few small bits with less dust, where idle fingers had trailed over that box longingly before pulling away quickly and slamming the door shut again.

_'Do you know? That when you wish upon a falling star, a fairy will grant your wish,' he laughed, somewhat mocking but hopeful as if to say that, if he could get _her_ to believe it, then it would be true for him too. But it never worked, never..._

The box stayed shut today too. Tsuruga Ren looked down on that box unseeing before slamming the door shut on that box containing all the old things from his life in America, life when he could still proudly say "I'm Kuon Hizuri!" and "Kuu is my father!"

Just _looking_ at it made him angry, because he was reminded of his father, of the role his father had done so _magnificently_ twenty years ago. He'd been certain he could surpass it somehow, but in the end Lory had been correct.

_"I'm sorry Ren, but it's just not feasible," Lory shook his head, eyes softened to near liquid in his sorrow. "I warned you that you weren't ready."_

_"I am! I have to be!" He didn't care that he was still on the set, that his co-actors were staring at him, that Ogata was so horrified. "To get to this and then fall short..."_

_"If you continue as you are, Dark Moon will fall far short of Tsukigomori. Your replacement is Mouri Keiji; Ogata-kun, I'm sorry for the inconvenience. I can assure you that the new Katsuki will do his best to make up for the lost time."_

Ren didn't have that emotion of _love_, not romantically. Kuon at least knew what it was, but he'd been locked so deep down that Ren wondered if that child still existed within him. How could he surpass his father and come back to America if he couldn't even play a romantic lead?

Kuu's shadow was getting bigger and bigger it seemed, and Ren felt like he just kept shrinking as he found he needed his old life more and more. But he couldn't. That box would stay closed, forever if need be.

_"He's coming here y'know," one of Ren's costars in a medical drama he'd recently taken up commented. He needed something to fill up the time that Dark Moon was supposed to take up after all. "That guy who played the role you quit for this show." That was the official story, that Ren and Ogata had some disagreements and decided it would be better for another actor to take the role of Katsuki; there would be less public outcry that way. "Hizuri Kuu."_

Ren clenched his fists. Tomorrow was the day when Kuu was scheduled to fly into Tokyo; if all went well, Ren would never be within the same television studio as his father, and he had already told Yukihito that under no circumstances was Lory or anyone else to find out his schedule.

If, for just one moment, his mask were to crack to Kuon, Ren might not be able to bring himself to be Ren.

**Author's Note: Yeah... decided to do an Advent Calendar. Why? Er... well, I'm bored and have Skip Beat bunnies trying to nom my brain. Hope these aren't too stupid! So I turned one of my many Skip Beat bunnies into a series of drabbles. They don't occur on the days they're written for, just at soe point between Dec 1 and Dec 25 (some will be the same day, some days will be skipped (lots will actually), etc).**

**And if you're confused (which you should be), you'll find out more later (though I think the summary explains a good bit of what's going on).**

**(I'm fairly certain no one has done this idea before, but then again I've only read maybe 3 Skip Beat fics... sorry if it's not as original as I think it is)  
**


	2. December 12th: Yukihito

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adversaria 1__  
A miscellaneous collection of notes, remarks, or selections. In this case, observational._

Many things could be said about Tsuruga Ren, as Yashiro Yukihito could state without any question. He'd been Ren's manager for about a year and a half, give or take a few months (he was not, Ren had said once, allowed to state the precise amount of time – one year, eight months, two weeks, three days, and four-point-six hours, Yukihito observed upon glancing at his watch – because it sounded creepy even if he _was_ Ren's super-competent manager), and so it could be said that he knew more about Ren than most.

Ren did not like to eat. He would, but he disliked food in general; Yukihito thought this might be do to some food-related trauma, though he couldn't dream of what that might be. Ren disliked Western foods more than anything, but he prefered to eat things that were quick to eat and had no nutritional value.

Ren was also very time conscious. His internal clock was very precise – unlike Yukihito, who had to use a watch and a cell phone alarm to keep track of such things – and he could tell the time to the minute without having any reference to a clock. It was Ren's internal clock and not Yukihito, as many thought, that made the reputation for always being on time.

These, along with Ren's tendency to smile warmly when angry, his good sense for trouble, and his ability to ignore everything for the sake of work, were traits regarding Ren that almost no one else knew about.

One trait that many would know about, or at least imagine the knew about, was Ren's complete unflabbleness. He did not get surprised or nervous or angry, at least not visibly, but the first had been broken in Yukihito's eyes. No one else had seemed to notice, but…

"_Hizuri Kuu_."

Yukihito hadn't really thought much when he'd heard the name, but he'd seen Ren's face, how the expression froze and, for a moment, the pure _fear_ that had shown in his eyes before the mask had slid back into place.

And then, an hour ago when the flight was landing…

"_Kuu's plane landed," Yukihito slipped the comment in with his usual observations so it would be unnoticable, but Ren twitched. In the past hour, the actor had been acting strangely – he'd eaten of his own free will for one thing._

"_Is that so," the intonation was completely flat. Yukihito felt a sudden foreboding, but he had to get through it._

"_Yeah; I think the President sent the Love Me section along. There's no mistaking that pink uniform," Yukihito _did_ feel bad for the girl. Her talent for memorization and emotion was great, but her real emotions were shallow. She tended to get mad at most of the people she was meant to help, too. When Yukihito was sick, she'd tried to take over for him and ended up failing horribly; all of Ren's shoots were set back two weeks because he caught pneumonia._

"_Hopefully she's grown some," Ren commented. Conversation turned to his model shoot the next day, but Yukihito still felt his charge's nervous energy._

Yukihito sighed and finished penciling in the changes to Ren's schedule before taking off his glasses and getting into bed. Something was wrong, and Hizuri Kuu had something to do with it…

But he wouldn't pry. Ren's business was Ren's business, and that was a lesson well learned.

**Author's Note: Mk, so there was some misunderstanding yesterday with what I meant in my note… I fully realize that I'm nowhere near the first person to think of an advent calendar; I'm not stupid. Seriously. What I meant was that, as far as I know, no one has used the story idea that I'm using for my calendar, okay? The actual plot. Sorry for the confusion.**

**And yeah, I gave up already on starting all my words with advent. Sadly, most of them mean the same thing. But they'll at least start with something similar to advent.**


	3. December 15th: Kuu

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Advection__  
The horizontal flow of air, water, etc. In this case, one homo sapien sapien._

The man's smile was strained. "Your work has been acceptable." It had been, but this girl... she had an outrageous ego for being so unknown. Her only job offer that the Boss hadn't facilitated was as a mascot – a giant rooster – which she had snubbed. Lory had asked him to bump her down a few pegs so that emotional growth would become possible, but...

"Then why are you only giving me seventy points?" scowled the girl. She was young yet, a pretty teenager with long black hair and impressive skills... but Kotonami Kanae lacked the ability to create a balanced character from scratch due to her own unbalanced nature, a flaw that she had not realized after nearly a year as the only member of Love Me. Kuu had tried to fix her, really he had. "I even pretended to be a boy, so why don't I get full points?"

"If you don't understand then my explanation would be meaningless," Kuu shook his head and then went away from where the pink-clad girl was glaring at him to the car that was taking him away. Nothing was going right it seemed, except for the movie promotion itself. He hadn't managed to run into his son anywhere; Julie was going to skin him alive. With Kotonami piled on top of it, he was glad he had had his aide back home schedule a few days of vacation outside of Tokyo. Hopefully Lory could talk some sense into Kuon – no, _that guy_, Tsuruga Ren – in the next few days, but if not...

Well, three months had seemed like such a realistic figure.

Still, Kuu refused to brood. He was getting out of Tokyo for a period of relaxation, and even though the drive would be long – he couldn't take the shinkansen for fear of being utterly mobbed by fans, and flying wasn't an effective means in this instance – he could keep himself occupied. He had a script to go over for his next film role in Hollywood after all.

In the end he just watched the scenery go by outside and ate the snacks – all four hundred thousand yen worth – absent mindedly.

"Hizuri-shi, we will be another fifteen minutes assuming traffic doesn't impede us," the driver only barely turned his head, keeping both eyes on the road by projecting his voice to the back seat. Kuu hummed his assent; he'd known somewhat vaguely already. After all, even with it being so long since his last visit, he knew Kyoto quite well, better than many locals. He had always liked wandering the city before making his debut, and his parents had always lectured him on the importance of Kyoto's cultural landmarks.

It really took only another ten minutes, which was good because Kuu was out of snacks, and it was about seven pm – just the right time, really.

The Fuwa Ryoukan stood before him, and Kuu smiled a bit. Yes, some traditional Kyoto-style hospitality sounded much better than a western style hotel. The perfect way to unwind after the Kotonami debacle.

**Author's Notes: Might sound weird, but I do love writing for fandoms I haven't written in before. I like it when people have never heard of me. I have a grand total of five Skip Beat fics I intend to write outside of this one, three of them being crossovers (and all of them but one would be short), so I'm thinking of this little advent thing being my way of bursting onto the scene (I love Skip Beat! I read it in July and reread it over thanksgiving; still amazing. Haven't found many fics I like though... suggestions?).**

**(Oh, and by the way, lately I've noticed I have the bad habit of slipping Japanese words into things without realizing; please excuse me! I'm currently in my third year of learning Japanese and getting to the point where I start thinking in Japanese so I don't really notice when I'll say a Japanese word instead of the English equivalent.)**

**And yes, Kyouko is finally appearing next chapter. I'm not used to writing female perspective (I know, it's weird, even though I'm a girl...) so please excuse me if it's not up to par with the rest.**


	4. December 15th: Kyouko

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adventitious 1  
Extrinsic, or from the outside. In this case, the outside world._

"Remember Kyouko, your success could mean the success or failure of the entire Ryoukan; you cannot break," the matron stated firmly. She was tall and usually quite kind, but she was also a strict taskmaster. "What comes is more intimidating than any critic; the world hangs on his word. Do you understand?"

"Yes." The girl in question, one Mogami Kyouko, bowed gracefully to her landlady, boss, and surrogate mother of a sort. The motion was fluid and practiced and failed to crumple the silk kimono ensconcing the girl's figure. Long black hair was held in an elegant bun by a single dark red stick, and make up had been applied with perfection. Under most circumstances, Kyouko would be over the moon to be wearing make-up, but when it was associated with work... it somehow lost its appeal.

"Good," the woman nodded imperiously, her expression softening ever so slightly, but not quite genuine. "I'm sure you will not fail to impress. The daikon and knife will be on the table when you enter."

Kyouko nodded. The customer had already arrived, and the Fuwa matron had only left him for a moment to get settled in his room before Kyouko was to fetch him for dinner. Of course, dinner would be cooked in front of him by the girl in question, and she would be doing the infamous daikon cutting trick; the owner of the Ryoukan, the cook, could not do that technique, but even if he could it would still have been Kyouko doing it. After all, wasn't it more impressive for a teenaged girl to do it? Wouldn't that reflect well on the Fuwa family? If _she_ could do it, surely the cook was even better, or so the reasoning was supposed to be.

Walking down the hall of the traditional hotel that was her home, Kyouko kept her mind focused. She had a customer to attend to; she must smile and be courteous, even if she _did_ have a test tomorrow and was itching to study. She'd been so close to getting a perfect mark last time, but it still wasn't a perfect, and there was really no point in taking a test if she wasn't going to get one hundred percent, now was there?

Before she realized it, Kyouko had stopped in front of an all too familiar door. This wasn't the first time Shoutarou's room had been used by a customer; outside of the master room where his parents slept, it was the largest and nicest room available, more so considering how well Kyouko maintained it.

_No,_ she admonished herself every time she did something to make that room just that much more inviting in the unlikely scenario of his return, _it's not worth it. It's pathetic._ She couldn't even come up with stronger words for her dog-like attitude with Shou though.

_"Fuwa-kun asked me to go with him to Tokyo!" giggled a girl from Kyouko's graduating class; she was leggy, and even though she was the youngest in the grade she had the most ample bosom of the entire class. She was short and cute and proportioned in just the way that Kyouko knew Shou liked his girls. It leant credence to her statement._

_"Eh? Really? I guess he really doesn't like Mogami-baka," this was a girl from the next class up, one who was already in high school yet hung out with middle school girls. She sounded victorious._

_"Well..." the first girl nibbled her lip, and Kyouko shrunk down lower. If they saw her... "I actually saw him asking her, right after the graduation ceremony. It was... romantic; there were sakura petals falling around them, and I'm sure he asked her. But she must have said no."_

Kyouko's gaze sharpened and she straightened herself. No, no thoughts of Shou. For this moment, she existed entirely as something with the intent only to serve and entertain Hizuri Kuu. That was her sole purpose in life until he would retire to Shou's – _the guest's_ – room. Then she could ruminate and study all she wanted.

Properly calmed now, she opened her mouth to call greetings to the guest – and the door slid open.

Kuu was... tall. Taller than Shou, certainly. Shou hadn't been too much taller than her, by comparison, but this man was surely a giant of nearly two meters. His hair was blond – she refused to make the connection to Shou – and his smile pleasant.

"Don't be intimidated; I'm just a regular guy on vacation," he was... reassuring, pleasant, friendly.

But Kyouko the Ryoukan worker did not react especially to this. She just flashed him her service-smile and asked him to follow her to the dining room.

In front of a customer, one must never hesitate or show discomfort.

**Author's Note: Sorry for the delay on this one! I wasn't home all day so I only got to sit down and write it at about 2230. Yes, Kyouko has finally appeared (well, it doesn't feel like "finally" to me, but since so many people commented on the lack it does seem more "finally" than before).**


	5. December 15th: Shou

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adventure 1  
To do something hazardous. In this case, the consequences of._

"Shou, you need to hurry up! The opening band is almost at the end of their set," Shouko sighed as her charge lounged in the green room. He wasn't in his costume yet – a trench coat made of blue fishnet, knee-high steel-toed boots, black leather pants, and no shirt – but he didn't particularly care. It would take two minutes to put on his pants and coat, and the boots had zips in the back so it wasn't like he had to lace them up or anything. His jewelry and makeup was already taken care of.

"Nothing to worry about, I'll be ready in time," he stretched out on the couch as if that would prove his statement.

Shouko sighed. "I know you're disappointed that you lost so many ticket sales to _them_, but you need to take this seriously Shou. If your fans see you flagging –"

"They already have," Shou glared up at his manager half heartedly; at least she was following the rule about not saying the name of _that band_ in his presence. "I'll go get dressed."

He left the room and went back to his dressing room. Show biz was all he'd thought it would be and more. Sadly, the screaming fans weren't too pleasant; he loved being loved by women, but most of his fans were around the same age as him. He couldn't stand them, older woman were much better, but Shouko tended to ignore his advances and he suspected Asami only flirted back to humor him.

And for months now, _that band_ had been stealing his fan base from under his feet with cheap knockoffs of his music and, even worse, outright stealing his songs before he could publish them. They took his style, his sound, everything, and ended up being more popular than him.

Before his thoughts could spiral downward, Shou took a calming breath and focused. He had a show to do. He couldn't go out there looking like death warmed over or his remaining fans – enough to fill the concert space but not enough to truly please him – would turn on him like many had already done.

When he made it into the entertainment world, things had been great. He had brought along a girl from Kyoto – Ruri, he thought her name was, but he could never remember – and sent her back as soon as the Akatoki Agency agreed to sign him. She had been annoying, always fawning over him, but not in the way Kyouko did. Kyouko could anticipate him, knew him inside and out and knew just what to say at all times, knew better than to make him _sweet_ things, but Ruri... he wouldn't have kept her at all if he weren't such a terrible cook. Never mind that she was cute, had a nice rack, and was practically begging to sleep with him, she'd been intolerable.

Zipping the back of one of his boots up, Shou sighed. If Kyouko had come with him... well, she knew him better than anyone. When was the last time he had Pucchin Purin? Not since he was last able to leave his flat without getting mobbed, which had been at least a year and a half. And asking Shouko to buy it for him was just embarrassing.

Kyouko would have bought him the delicious pudding every day if she had agreed to come with him.

After nearly two years, he could still get angry at her for refusing. She loved him, didn't she? But she chose her mother's acceptance – as if she'd ever get _that_ – and life at the Ryoukan over him. _Him!_

He zipped the other boot and stood. It was useless thinking about her anyway. She was his and had been his since they were children, but everyone hated her back in Kyoto anyway. Kyouko wouldn't be stolen from him or anything, living in a place that would remind her of him every day. One day he'd go back and collect her and she would be his servant or something. Rich, famous people needed servants. Maybe she would make a good manager one day, since Shouko had mentioned the president wanting her to transfer to managing an actor or having a desk job.

"Shou, I swear if you aren't out of therein ten seconds I'll let the fangirls –" Shouko stopped as Shou opened the door to the dressing room, fully dressed in his costume for the evening. "Good. The opening set is doing one encore song, so you have time to get to the stage without running at least. Honestly Shou, you act like such a kid sometimes." The only reason Shou didn't take it personally was because she _sounded_ like she was kidding, somewhat.

"What do you expect, a little prince like me?" He tried to meet her tone, but fell flat. He couldn't help but think that Kyouko probably would have kept him in line somehow, even with her sycophantic attitude towards him.

When he stepped out onto the stage and was met with the cheering of his loyal fans, Shou banished all thoughts of Kyouko. He was a performer, a professional.

On stage, he had no past and no future, only the present.

**Author's Note: Sorry about lateness in the day again; my otaku club had a party and I didn't have time to post before leaving. Wasn't sure how to write the Kuu-Kyouko encounter yet, so you guys get the Shou's perspective chapter a bit earlier than intended (yes, he only gets one... probably... there might be another...).**


	6. December 15th: Kuu 2

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adventure 2_

_An exciting or very unusual experience. In this case, culinary._

The silhouette – only just recognizable as female (1) – on the door had been still for about thirty seconds when Kuu opened the door; one of the staff, whoever had been sent to guide him to the dining room, was obviously intimidated by having such a famous person present and could not bring herself to get his attention. Not that he would blame her – at 47 (2) he was still rather striking after all.

Expecting to be met by a nervous or awed gaze, Kuu was rather surprised to note how entirely composed she was. Probably trying to hide her nervousness, though he had to admit she did a good job of it.

"Don't be intimidated; I'm just a regular guy on vacation," he smiled, wondering if he would crack her mask, but the young woman just smiled up at him warmly and asked him to follow her to the dining room. Her voice was even steady, to perfect image of a demure hotel hostess without being _too_ shy.

Still, with the hesitation outside of his door, Kuu was certain that she was nervous. To be able to hide it spoke of good acting skills; he wouldn't have even guessed at it if it weren't for that, and even now he was skeptical of whether or not she had been hesitating for the reason he thought.

The dining room was a small traditional affair with a kotatsu in the middle of the room. He sat gratefully and stuck his legs under the warm blanket; unlike his room, the halls were _not_ heated and the house slippers weren't enough to keep his feet warm. The young woman had entered before him, but was standing by the door where a mobile stove top was waiting. So they were going to make a show of cooking for him. But where were the owners?

The girl had her back turned to him, mostly, as she pulled a daikon and a very large, very sharp looking knife out. A small bowl-like vase was set in front of her on the stove top, which was not on, and Kuu couldn't help it when his eyebrows raised in surprise.

She was peeling the daikon, very quickly and without hesitation. Each fold landed in the bowl-vase just so, and Kuu was impressed even from the table. She was doing the daikon peeling technique that was lauded as being near impossible, and so casually. It was a performance art; this girl was acting as though he wasn't even there, not making a spectacle of herself, and yet it was intentional.

Anyone else would have been utterly convinced that the girl was not putting on any sort of show, but Kuu knew the ins and outs of show biz, and as a result a fair bit about psychology. It was all on purpose, to seem even more impressive, which did make it even more impressive because it was so carefully planned out. How many teenaged girls could do this? Previously, Kuu probably would have said none; now he could say one.

When the daikon peeling had finished, the young woman picked up the bowl-vase and brought it to the table, where it was set as a center piece; it was a perfect rose.

"Alright, Kuu acceded, "I'm impressed." After all, if she could do that, the actual food meant for eating would be great.

Hopefully, they had heard about his legendary eating habits.

**Author's Note: *headdesk* I finished this hours ago and forgot to post it. Silly me. Well, whatever, at least you get your chapter. Next chapter will also be in Kuu's point of view, just so y'know. Now I need to write a 1-2 page introduction for a history paper before my dad gets home! Wish me luck. (On the bright side, it's just a rough draft and therefore the grade is "did you do it or not?")  
**

(1) Traditionally, kimono are worn in a fashion that minimalizes curves. Since Kyouko would wear it in the traditional fashion, especially at the Ryoukan, it would be difficult to tell from a frontward silhouette that she is female (a side silhouette would be much easier).

(2) I don't know if Kuu has an official age, so I just made one up for him. If he DOES have a real age, I appreciate being corrected over being wrong and never knowing!


	7. December 16th: Kuu

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adventure 3  
To venture to say or utter. In this case, advice._

The great detriment of staying in this Ryoukan as opposed to a western style hotel was that it was perhaps a bit too traditional; his room didn't have its own toilet, so he had to walk over to the nearest wash room. He was a bit chilled, but his sleeping yukata staved off a bit of cold at least. Maybe living in the States had spoiled him; certainly he'd been spoiled by the California weather.

As the serving girl from that evening – Kyouko, she said her name was, appropriate for one living in the Western capital – had informed him when asked that his room was actually the room of the young master of the family who had left almost two years ago; she looked very sad as she said this.

"_Shou-kun was confined here; he didn't want to do what his parents wanted him too," she winced at her own words, but it was hardly perceptible. Her smile was still prominent, it was only by the way that her eyes were just a little too wide that Kuu could tell what she was doing. "He's a very talented musician. Since his debut, he became very popular."_

"_I take it that you were very close to your brother, then?" Kuu was eyeing some of the food that Kyouko was making. He would be patient, but he was _really_ hungry. His lunch had been just a bunch of snacks since they couldn't very well stop on the way between Tokyo and Kyoto. But he would be patient._

"_Brother…? Oh, no, I'm not related to Shou-kun or the proprietors," she glanced away slightly. It was a painful topic, or perhaps something she wasn't supposed to talk about, but Kuu doubted anyone but an actor or a psychologist would have noticed anything. "I'm just an employee, an old classmate of Shou-kun's from before he left."_

_And that, Kuu knew, was a lie._

The bedroom Kuu was staying in was in the same section of the Ryoukan as the living quarters of the owners and the only live-in employee, who happened to be Kyouko. The real chef, the owner of the Ryoukan, had admitted after dinner that Kyouko had been living with them since before she graduated from middle school, and the last time they had heard from the girl's mother was at least a year ago. Of course, he'd been puffing himself up at the time, talking about how he and his wife had taken the poor girl in and made her into a real lady and a fabulous cook; they had changed their wills even, so the Ryoukan would go to the competent young lady instead of their good-for-nothing son.

Unsure as to how to take that – as a self-acknowledged oya-baka, Kuu could not understand the idea of not loving one's child with all one's heart – Kuu had smiled. At least she was appreciated; people like that were surely one-in-a-million.

Back on the topic of rooms, Kuu glanced curiously to the left as he passed by Kyouko's. It was three am, and the light was on. What could she be doing so late? Curiosity killed the cat, but, Kuu mused, satisfaction brought it back. And it wasn't like he would get in trouble for knocking on the wooden frame of the door.

The response was immediate. "Yes?" There was a patter of bare feet on the wooden floor and, before Kuu could answer, the door had slid open.

The first thought that came to Kuu was that Kyouko looked very different with her make-up cleaned off. She was wearing Western style pajamas, a surprise but not completely alien, and her hair was a bit shorter than he'd thought. Really, she was almost unrecognizable, except for the way she held herself, like a young rich girl. Or a Ryoukan heiress.

"May I help you, Hizuri-sama?" She was wearing the smile from before, which Kuu was now fairly certain wasn't a real smile at all but perhaps some sort of ingrained reflex. Anyone would be annoyed at being disturbed so late, wouldn't they? Unless she didn't realize how late it was.

"I can't recall where the toilet is; I saw your light was on and thought to ask you directions," which was a lie, but Kuu was a great actor, and great actors could weave lies into the most convincing truth to point where he, too, might believe that that was why he knocked on her door, rather than the reason of being curious. Behind her, he noticed a desk was scattered with books and papers. "Are you... studying?" _At three am?_

"I have exams tomorrow before the end of the fall term," Kyouko answered evenly, "and I have to study."

Tomorrow? And she was staying up 'til all hours to study _tonight_? "Do you have a bad average? Cramming so late at night really isn't very helpful," Kuu advised. And he should know; early in his career, how many times had he stayed up all night running lines only to find he'd forgotten them come morning? Too many to count. "Sleep is an important part of memorization. When you sleep, your brain can make the memory more concrete so that things you learn are easier to recall. And having a good night's sleep will help you be more awake come morning."

It was a bit too late for a good night's sleep, but it was the thought that counted. She had taken care of him – and his stomach – that evening, so he should show her some similar courtesy.

"My average isn't... terrible, but it isn't perfect," she glanced askance. Guilt, shame, embarrassment, and a bit of melancholy. The service-smile had dropped with that statement. "Until my- um, until I can say I am pleased with my score, then I feel I need to keep studying and trying harder." Her gaze snapped to him, still meek but more obstinate as if to say "And you aren't going to stop me!"

Kuu hmmed a response. "Well, I still think you should get some sleep. It will help more than cramming."

And then he turned and left, walking toward the bathroom and entirely forgetting the supposed reason for why he had interrupted her. His curiosity was sated, but he wasn't satisfied.

_Oh well_, he thought, _I'm only here a couple more days. It doesn't matter._

**Author's Note: Actually, this was one of the first scenes I thought of when I had the idea of Kyouko not following Shou. The other first-scenes... are the next couple chapters probably. Hm. Anyway, here's to hoping I can keep the plot on track and wrap this up on Christmas :D (Also planning a Boxing Day Omake suggested by Akua. On that note, thanks to my reviewers. ^^ I do so love being a newbie in a fandom).**


	8. December 16th: Kyouko

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adventitious 2  
Appearing in an abnormal or unusual place or position. In this case, literally._

She was sure to have failed. There was nothing else that could have happened; failure was the only possibility. She shouldn't have listened; how could she have listened?! Yes, he was Hizuri Kuu, but aside from watching Shou's career Kyouko ignored most things that had to do with celebrities, simply because she had seen her fair share at the Ryoukan and knew that most of them had bad attitudes. So did Shou, she would grudgingly admit.

But that was beside the point! She had actually listened with she'd been told that sleep would help her. How could that help when she hadn't finished studying yet? There had still been some quadratic formula work to go over, and yet she had listened and gone to bed. Admittedly, she was more awake than she would have been otherwise, but...

There was no way she could have done any better on these tests than the practice exams. Never mind how confident she had been while writing in her answers, she must have been wrong. In history, she was sure she'd put in the wrong follower for Nobunaga; she had claimed it was Mori, but now she wondered if it hadn't been another of his men. And in her kanji test, she had placed the sixth stroke too low on one of the kanji. She couldn't even recall _which_ kanji, which made her even more nervous.

On the bright side, she hadn't been woken early to make breakfast for Kuu because he slept in late, and she didn't need to start work at the Ryoukan for another hour or two. The non-VIP guests were all easily managed by the Fuwa family, and the one VIP guest was 'out patrolling his old haunts'. What precisely that meant, Kyouko did not know, but she figured it was none of her business. With all the reporters and paparazzi hiding around the Ryoukan for any hint of Kuu, some time away to calm herself down sounded like a very good idea.

The best place for this, Kyouko knew quite well, and she went there quickly. There was no worry about classmates wanting to socialize with her – they had never liked her because of her friendship with Shou, and now that had warped to them feeling she had driven him away, which wasn't far from the truth – and it wasn't long before she found herself at the river.

Although the river's existence was no secret, there was one part that no one came to due to the thickness of undergrowth and other plants; the water was too shallow for fishing, and too murky for anything other than perhaps catching frogs. There were also no paths leading to this particular place; it was by sheer accident that Kyouko had found it at first.

Well, that was what she had thought initially, until she met someone there. Then she knew it was magic.

She couldn't help but smile at the heatless December sun that was already heading to the horizon. This was nature, but it had always been infused with magic so long as Kyouko had known it, a magic to lift her heart and take away the pressures associated with her mother, her classmates, and, for the past two years, Shou's parents. There was a portable piece of that serenity that she kept near her too, a small blue stone.

As she always loved to, Kyouko pulled the stone from her school bag and sat on a boulder near the river, ignoring the cold that seeped through her skirt. She held up the bit of stone and watched it change in the sunlight.

"That's magic," she said out loud to herself, feeling all her worries wash away, if only for a while. The sound of a branch breaking made her turn swiftly about.

Hizuri Kuu was standing there.

**Author's Note: Yeah, finally did a second Kyouko chapter. I think I've mentioned, but I'm unaccustomed to writing girls. Hopefully I did well. ^^"**


	9. December 16th: Kuu 2

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adventitious 3  
Associated with something by chance rather than as an intrinsical part. In this case, a strange coincidence._

As any day, Kuu was swamped with fans most places he went. His old haunts back in Kyoto were pretty well known, and it was only natural that he would visit this places; he was completely unsurprised every time that he came across crowds when he went to visit various places. A playground, a condo building that had once been a tea shop, the house where he had grown up, all were swarmed with his fans.

Of course, there were some places that he hadn't been expecting to be swarmed. He had gone to his old high school around noon, which had been converted to a shopping complex; this must have been pretty recent since the last time he'd been to Kyoto, with Kuon, it had still be a school. The surprised shoppers had all but mobbed him before his chauffeur took off for the next destination.

However, there was one place Kuu knew he would not be swarmed at, simply because even if the place itself were common knowledge – which it wasn't – who would associate it with him? It seemed like a good place to go for some peace and quiet before going back to the Ryoukan for dinner.

The car stopped at the edge of the woods and Kuu assured the chauffeur that he would return in half an hour to an hour before making his way into the forest. This was still the easiest way in unless he wanted to wade through the river – not a bright idea given it was going to officially be Winter in a couple of days – and while the paths created by animals were bound to have changed since his last visit, it looked like the same path from before was still well used enough. Maybe there were some good bushes nearby for deer to eat from?

Looking forward to a bit of solitary reminiscing time, Kuu didn't think of the possibility of the path being in use because humans weren't as fickle over pathways as animals, nor that his old summer hang out might have been found. He'd only shown the place to a few people – some close friends as a child, all moved away from Kyoto by now, his wife and son when they came to visit, but no one else – and it wasn't a very appealing place unless one enjoyed nature.

Being a born outdoorsman, Kuu could appreciate the beauty of his spot perfectly.

With his mind on the trees and trying not to trip, Kuu couldn't stop himself from being surprised when he saw a dark-haired girl sitting on a boulder with her back to him. He _almost_ tripped, and in almost tripping he snapped a branch underfoot with a rather loud cracking noise. It was inevitable that the girl would turn around to see what had made such a loud noise.

Kuu only paused for a moment upon seeing who the girl really was. "Mogami-san," he greeted, continuing the last twenty feet to the river as though nothing strange was going on. "Fancy meeting you here." He smiled, hiding his surprise. So far as she knew, he had just stumbled across this place. Not that he expected her to rat him out – due to her solitary state, he thought she might use this for the same purpose he always had, to be alone with nature – but he wasn't about to let her know anything anyway.

"Hizuri-sama! I... I thought you were going to be in the city all day," she had looked rather shocked at first, but now her features were schooled into a curious face as soon as she had begun to bow; quiet, controlled, and amiable, not surprised or anything else.

"I spend so much time in American cities that I wanted to go for a hike," not a complete lie, simply omitting. He was an actor, a master liar, because every lie he told was truth. Not even a lie detector machine could tell when he was lying, and Julie had certainly _tried_. "Is school out already? It still feels early."

Changing the subject was always a wonderful tactic.

"Yes, it's vacation now," she informed him. "Though how it can't feel late..." she sounded amused as she glanced toward the sun that, to Kuu's Californian sensibilities, was too low in the sky, but somehow Kuu doubted she was being honest about her emotions.

"Aa, you had tests today, didn't you? Did you sleep well?" He doubted it.

"Some," she did not elucidate. Maybe she really wasn't very good at academics and that was why she had stayed up late? But it still didn't seem quite right. Maybe it was the rich-girl air that had been trained into her at the Ryoukan, but Kuu got the feeling that she was a bright girl, behind her service mask.

So he hummed a noncommittal response. Unfortunately, he wasn't in Kyoto much longer, just until tomorrow, which meant he would get to have his alone time at his secret spot. Well, he'd best make the best of it anyway, with the company provided.

That was when he noticed Kyouko's clenched fist. For a moment, he thought she was angry, but then he realized that by the displacement of her fingers that she holding something. A stone? An eraser? What else was the right size?

Rather than guess, Kuu inquired, "What's in your hand?"

Kyouko answered, seemingly without thinking, with the rather strange reply of "Corn".

Kuu heard "Kuon".

**Author's Note: ... I need to stop getting distracted by facebook and Detective Conan fanfics and just write the chapters straight through ^^"**


	10. December 16th: Kyouko 2

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adventurism 1_

_Defiance or disregard of accepted standards of behavior. In this case, mannerisms trained into a person._

"K-Corn?" Kuu stammered. Kyouko looked at him, confused, and clutched her hand a bit tighter around the stone. Was he going to laugh at her? She knew it was a weird name, which was a tiny part of why she never told anyone about her most prized possession. Another part was that she knew most people stopped believing in fairies – she did her best to clap and bring back as many as she could, and she had to believe that she was doing everything she could for the dwindling magic in the world – and the greatest part was fear that, by sharing the secret, Corn wouldn't work anymore.

"Yes, _Corn_," she defended, slightly affronted though she fought not to show it. "It's strange, but that is its name." She wasn't sure why she went ahead, but no one else had ever noticed Corn – another part of the fairy's magic, surely – and the need to justify herself to her customer niggled at her.

So she lifted her clenched fist and opened it to reveal the blue-purple stone that had been given to her by the fairy prince when she was young.

"... It's a rock," Kuu observed finally. "Aoto, probably from Kouzaki, right? They're pretty rare nowadays, but souvenir shops still carried them last I checked. I remember buying one last time I was in Kyo...to..."

"No way," Kyouko shook her head furiously and pulled Corn back towards her. "Corn isn't some stone you can pick up at a souvenir shop! He was given to me by Corn, prince of the fairies! See that melancholic blue color? Corn is imbued with magic to absorb unhappy thoughts to clear your head of whatever troubles you!"

Kuu stared at her, and Kyouko realized belatedly that she had just been _yelling_ at a _customer_ and _burdening him with her problems_! Sure, she hadn't actually said anything about her problems, but why would Corn have given her a magic stone if she weren't sad so often? He said he didn't want to see her cry anymore, and it had been a long time since she last cried, almost two years.

She was halfway into bowing when Kuu spoke. "So you did meet Corn..." he paused, "but you're pronouncing it wrong, you know. With my accent it does sound a bit like 'Corn'. It's really Ku-o-n."

Kyouko stopped bowing. "What?"

"His name is – was – Kuon, not Corn," Kuu repeated. When you met... he would have been a young teenager? About yea-high?" He held his hand up somewhere on his torso to indicate height. "Blond hair, beautiful features, a rapier wit, amazing athleticism, graceful and talented and kind and brave..." he went on, using words that Kyouko could pin on Kuon – no, not Kuon! He was Corn! – so easily.

Still, she couldn't deny it. "That sounds exactly like him," she murmured, pulling the stone ever closer to her heart as she did so. "But Corn was a fairy prince! How would you know him?"

"Kuon," Kuu enunciated the name carefully, "is my son."

Son? Kyouko faltered. Son. This was Corn's – Kuon's? – father, who had ripped out Kuon's wings so many times, keeping him from reaching his true potential as the fairy prince... this man claimed to be the one who had made Kuon sad, made him so able to sympathize with Kyouko...

She snapped.

**Author's Note: No, she's not snapping canon!Kyouko style. She just attacked Kuu is all :D**

**I might be posting 2 tomorrow since my dad usually has the computer on Saturdays and I wouldn't want you guys to have to wait for two chapters on Sunday. Not sure though, since I can never seem to just sit down and write these in one go (they'd take less than an hour, but... I'm easily distracted lately).**

**Also, sorry I've been so bad about replying to reviews! I'm usually a lot better about it; I'll try and get back to you all after school tomorrow (again, I blame Detective Conan fanfiction).**


	11. December 16th: Makoto

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adversative  
Expressing contrarity, opposition, or antithesis. In this case, via thought._

Fuwa Makoto did not sigh. She did not blink, she did not even reprimand. By not reprimanding, she knew that Mogami Kyouko would be suffering far greater guilt. The girl had apologized profusely, but she hemmed around the truth; Kyouko having been Shoutarou's best friend and their unofficial fulltime boarder for years before becoming an employee, Makoto could say she was intimately familiar with the girl's moods.

So, when Kyouko had walked in shame-faced and limping with the aid of a strangely amused looking Hizuri Kuu, Makoto had played the concerned mother figure for her guest and did not drop the facade even when she and Kyouko were alone.

"What happened?" She asked, voice dripping with false concern that she _knew_ Kyouko would catch as just that.

"I... tripped on my way home from school," Kyouko lied. She looked Makoto directly in the face and lied; the girl had always been a convincing liar, when she felt she had to be, usually in defense of Shoutarou. But, again, Makoto knew Kyouko well.

"You poor thing," she kneeled before the girl to check the ankle – a slight twist, definitely from tripping, but not in the way that Makoto was meant to believe.

"N-not really, K- Hizuri-sama found me on his way back, and I was given a ride for the rest of the way," there was a tiny bubble of happiness; Kyouko was not often in a car, and when she was it was usually the car that the Fuwa family had for trips to the grocer. Moreover, the vehicle Kuu came in was rather fancy, and the idea of it having a driver – who was staying in a western style hotel closer into town – had probably triggered one of her princess fantasies.

Makoto had long since given up on getting rid of _those_. They were so ingrained into the girl's personality that it was likely nothing could diminish her belief in romantic princess stories, or in the supernatural.

"That was very kind of him," Makoto stood again. "I hope you thanked Hizuri-sama and his driver?"

Kyouko bowed slightly in acknowledgment. "Yes, but I will again later," she declared quietly.

"Good," Makoto smiled false-warmly at the girl. "Let's get you cleaned up and then you will join Kenta in the kitchen while I entertain Hizuri-sama."

"Of... of course," Kyouko bowed again, this time lower, and left the room, limping more heavily than before, but only because Makoto took none of her weight. She needed to be punished for not telling the whole truth and for not coming home straight after her exams ended, and by letting the girl stew in guilt Makoto knew she would never have to lift a finger to have that done.

Even though it was wrong, Makoto couldn't help but feel it was Kyouko who had driven her precious son away.

**Author's Note: Yeah, had to make up names for Shou's parents since I did this chapter from his mother's point of view... if they have real names, could anyone tell me? I just picked those names 'cause... they picked themselves really. You'll find out more about what is going on on Kyouko and Kuu's end... on Sunday. The Saturday chapter takes place in Tokyo (muahahaha).**

**Wow, didn't even get to start on this one late 'cause I had to go shopping right after school (expecting to be iced in for the weekend) and then I had to clean the kitchen =_=**


	12. December 16th: Ren

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adventuress_

_A woman seeking to gain through unscrupulous or questionable means. In this case, motive is unclear._

Ren was going to _kill _Yashiro, a fact that was emphasized by the fact that he was thinking of the meddlesome manager by his family name. Normally he was quite amicable, but Ren was definitely going to kill that man now.

He had set Ren up on a blind date and not told him. No, Ren had been told he had a meeting with the executive producer of one of the possible scripts he had been given to look over – 'Kumo Korosu' (1) was one that he was looking on favorably since it gave him the chance to retry probing into romantic feelings again without being too heavy for Lory to let him – over dinner. Yashiro had said that the producer had taken up the task to convince Ren to take it instead of the other offer Ren was considering (a musical called 'Ore no HEART' (2)).

And now Ren was sitting across a small, candle-lit table with a young singer from the Akatoki Agency. She was taller than most Japanese women, and her features spoke of some European descent, perhaps German. Her figure was good, and she carried herself like a model.

It wasn't her looks that bothered Ren – though the bright green hair, cut like a man's and obviously normally spiked up rather than twisted into more socially acceptable curls, drew his attention – but her personality.

This girl, this "Nani Mo" seemed to hate him. Or something. Well, alright, she seemed indifferent to him, and it was creeping him out a little. It wasn't that she was treating him with equal standing as he often wished costars would – though she was – and it didn't have anything to do with the complete disinterest she had in his work. _That_ was appreciated. The way she looked at him and spoke to him, that was the real issue.

_"Don't think anything of this, Tsuruga-san," she said as soon as she arrived. That was when he realized that no, he wasn't meeting a producer of any sort. "I wanted to be home studying, but the old biddy – I mean, President Toriko – said it was a good PR opportunity or something. I'll just assume you ignore the Akatoki stars and introduce myself then. I'm Nani Mo, from GRIN. So, let's get this date out of the way and be rid of one another; I have a test in Chinese tomorrow and I need to finish an essay for literature."_

Ren had no allowed himself to stare. He had composed himself, and pretended that it was a real date and that he was _not_ plotting the imminent demise of Yashiro – and President Lory too, just in case.

He pointedly pushed away his reaction to Mo's facial expressions. They were acting for the sake of any who might be watching, and Mo was very convincing so long as Ren wasn't looking her in the eye. Her expressions were exactly right, and she leaned in as though interested in something Ren was saying, but her eyes were totally blank.

Her smile crinkled her eyes, but she wasn't really amused. The eyelids closed when she laughed, but when they opened there was no hint of amusement. Her reaction to the food was fake, and even when she was creating conversation on her own, she was entirely disinterested. Not a single emotion she was displaying was honest.

_"Don't mind it," she stated, a smooth smile on her lips. Only her lips. "It's nothing personal. I'm just 18 and dead on the inside. I would stop pretending, but my parents would just send me to the psychiatrist again."_

To foster emotional growth and growth as an actor, Lory had suggested that Ren fall in love. Get into a meaningful relationship where he truly felt he could not live without the other person involved. Now though, he was wondering if it was worth it. This was his first "date" in just over a year.

And he was going to _kill_ Yashiro.

**Author's Note: Mo-chan is obviously an OC. I actually created her for another Skip Beat fic I'm going to write soon (not as the main character, it'll be Kyouko's POV, but she's sort of... a vehicle for Kyouko's personal growth). Nanimo means "nothing", which is appropriate for her personality, in that she doesn't seem to have one (actually, she's just super apathetic and has some issues with the emotion-centers of the brain...). She's very fun to play around with :) I think this is her only appearance here though; she's just a vehicle for Ren this time (you'll see how later).**

**Ren has a more open schedule now than in the manga due to no Dark Moon and, because of no Dark Moon, he's also not preparing to play BJ since his wrathful side has no been seen, even with his medical drama.**

**Also, I already sent a reply to the reviewer in question, but she commented on last chapter and I thought I'd tell you guys what was up with that. Shou's mom DOES know that Kyouko has nothing to do with Shou leaving, but she also can't bring herself to think that it was her fault (even though it was) and she recognizes it's wrong to take it out on Kyouko (see last line of chapter 11). But people don't react in the right way because it is right or anything. I see Makoto as a kind of pitiable character in that respect... and she does have to be that way.**

(1) Translates to "Killing the Spider" (informal). Why? Because there was a spider skittering across my keyboard. Inspiration strikes.

(2) Heart being in English – translates out to "My Heart" (Ore is a masculine first person pronoun that is considered rather macho whereas boku is more polite (watashi is of course most polite, but used most often by girls)).


	13. December 17th: Kyouko

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adventive  
__Not native and usually not well established. In this case, a person.  
_

"Kuu-sama, who is this girl?"

"Hizuri Kuu, what exactly –"

"Hizuri-shi –"

"Kuu -!"

"We love you Kuu-sama!"

"Young lady, what is your relation –"

"Alright, alright," Kuu smiled dazzlingly at the crowd as Kyouko cowered behind him. What the hell? The moment she had stepped out of the car behind Kuu, the waiting reporters had jumped on them, and they had only just now, after three minutes of wading through people, made their way to the doors of the hotel. Was this what celebrities had to deal with every day? Was this what Shou had to deal with?

Unbidden, she wondered, _is this what Kuon has to deal with?_

_"Kuon is my son," Kuu informed her. Kyouko stared for about ten seconds as her mind processed that Corn was Kuon and that Kuu was the one who had made Kuon so sad, and then she ran forward in a momentary rage._

_And she tripped on a loose stone, one of the scrambled-egg rocks that were so easily found here._

_The only thing that stopped her from face-planting was that Kuu had caught her by the shoulders, and she realized what she was doing. She had been about to attack her customer; even if she wasn't on duty, he was still a customer. Such a thing was unforgivable._

_Worse, if he was Kuon's father... that made him the King of all the fairies._

_She had _attacked_ the _King_._

_"Er... Mogami-san, are you okay?" He gently pulled her up by her shoulders so Kyouko could rest on her knees, which had luckily landed on flat stones; in a worst case scenario there would be bruising, but she had never bruised easily._

_"I... I'm sorry!" She moved quickly to stand and withheld a wince as her ankle twinged in response to weight being placed on it. Well, she'd had to deal with worse. This was probably just a simple twist, a pinched nerve or something. She bowed deeply and worked on regaining her composure. Whether or not he was Corn's father and Corn was really Kuon and he was the King of the fairies, he was still Hizuri Kuu and a person she was charged with caring for until he left tomorrow._

"Kuu-sama, who is this young lady?" One of the reporters asked now that Kuu had them calmed down. Kyouko had stopped hiding behind his back and was instead trying not to meet the gaze of any of the reporters in case they took that as permission to question her. Instead she stood a bit behind Kuu and was in service-mode to keep her face from slipping.

"Mogami-san is the apprentice chef at the Ryoukan where I was staying in Kyoto," Kuu explained. It was close enough. "I've hired her for the rest of my stay; she's a very good cook."

The reporter had an amused look on his face, "So your wife has nothing to worry about?"

Kyouko nearly gaped at that one, l but recalled that looking at the reporters was a bad idea. She averted her eyes and ended up getting blinded by a camera flash.

"If I did anything like that, my wife would kill me; even if she weren't the most beautiful and lovely woman in the world, I would never do that to Julie," his reaction was rather exaggerated before he winked just in time for three camera flashes to catch the action.

_They were seated on the boulder that Kyouko had been on before, observing nature and talking quietly. "So... if Corn is Kuon and Kuon is your son..." Kyouko did NOT bite her lip, "Does that mean... he wasn't a fairy?"_

_It was the most logical explanation, unfortunately, and as much as Kyouko wished and wished that her Corn – Kuon – had been a fairy, she could tell that Kuu wasn't a fairy. He wasn't. And that meant he wasn't the Fairy King, nor was his son the Prince, for all that he could fly._

_"No, Kuon was, after a fashion," Kuu laughed. "That boy is pure magic." He seemed about to swoon as he started waxing poetic about Kuon's virtues, all of which fit the boy Kyouko had met years ago._

"See? They weren't that bad!" Kuu smiled at Kyouko, but she was still trying to breathe properly.

"Not... not bad? They completely gave me the third degree!" Kyouko cast a disbelieving look towards her temporary guardian – Kuu had had to sign the papers to take her to Tokyo, that he would be responsible for her for three days – who kept his smile up even as they stepped into the elevator.

"As is expected, but it could have been a lot worse," Kuu shrugged at Kyouko's annoyed face. "At least I convinced them that I wasn't going to do anything like 'that' with you." His face squished in obvious repulsion for a moment, likely because of Kyouko's age (at least she preferred to think that), before smoothing out again.

"Yes, there is that," she sighed and leaned against the back of the elevator with her duffle bag resting on the floor as Kuu hit the buttons for their floors – his was on the top, whereas hers was a few floors lower.

_"Why do you keep saying 'was'?" This was what Kyouko was most afraid of. Kuu admitted to Kuon being magic, pure magic, but half the time he would speak in the past tense. It could be considered a slip, or a statement that Kuon's personality had changed, but it could just as easily be a slip in the other direction too, the Kuu didn't mean to speak in the present tense._

_"Mm... I still have the image of the fifteen year old Kuon you see," Kuu didn't seem too saddened by the question. "I don't know what he's like now though; he refuses to contact me, even through email."_

_Kyouko stared. "Wh- why?" Kuu seemed like a very kind man, and he was bound to be one of the legendary oya-baka. How could Kuon not speak with him anymore? Surely... now she was certain that what Kuon had said about his father had been an exaggeration._

_"He couldn't stand to be in my shadow anymore, so he stopped being Kuon," Kuu didn't look at Kyouko then. "He moved away and now he's someone else entirely. And he can't meet me, not even once, until he's certain that by revealing himself he will not be eclipsed again. He was always brilliant at acting, but he wasn't taken seriously because he was my son, and he..." Kuu laughed. "He was a little big-headed."_

_"I... I see," and so she did, sort of. So Kuon's wings really had been tangled in Kuu's fingers all that time._

_"He's in Tokyo, and I've been trying to get him to see me, but he refuses," Kuu then sighed, all facades forsaken in favor of moping. Kyouko was surprised he was so relaxed in front of her, but then, she was a nobody, wasn't she? "Julie really wanted to see him. She says she only has three months left, and I can't even tell Kuon unless he agrees to meet with me."_

"Do you think it will work?" Kyouko was in the kitchen of Kuu's hotel room, making a large lunch before they went about the rest of Kuu's business for the day. That was her official reason for being in Tokyo after all, and it wasn't a false one.

"No, but anything is better than nothing," Kuu sighed. "I've talked to Lory, we're most likely to see Kuon on the 18th; we'll be in the same studio for about an hour. It might convince him to meet with me."

Kyouko sighed and continued cooking. They had half an hour, and then she would start getting her real walkthrough of showbiz. She just hoped she could get Kuon – Tsuruga Ren, as she was supposed to call him if they did meet – to meet with his father.

She was completely out of place in Tokyo. It was frightening. It was ridiculously frightening, really. She was in the same city as Shou, and she was going to meet one of the biggest stars in the country who happened to be _Corn_, and convince him to talk to his father who he hadn't seen in over five years, all in the space of a _potential_ meeting that might last less than a minute. Who was to say he would even remember her, or that he would listen to her? Of course she was frightened!

And she felt more alive than before Shou left.

**Author's Note: Ooo, longer chapter this time. Probably should have started it a lot earlier though (like, say, before 7 pm). Er... yeah. Sorry about that. Hopefully I'll be able to get everything out as planned this week, but I don't know what homework my teachers will try to pile on before break... But the final chapter, chapter 25, will be out on schedule, ok? No matter what.**


	14. December 17th: Shouko

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adventurism 2  
Rash or irresponsible policies, methods, or actions. In this case, those of a celebrity._

"Shou, you really shouldn't watch that much television," Shouko commented, but it was half-hearted at best. Ever since she had been put in charge of Shou, he had been living with her; at first he thought his claims of complete helplessness and utterly spoiled youth had been an exaggeration and perhaps his way of flirting with her (in addition to climbing all over her), but that image had been long since spoiled. If anything, he hadn't been adamant enough regarding his total uselessness.

She wouldn't let him live in her flat if he weren't; it was bad enough that he seemed to think that made her interested (she wasn't; he was a cute kid, though she'd learned not to say that to his face, but he was still only 17, and she was twenty-five).

Still, she loved Shou in a sort of big-sister way. Sort of. It was a complicated friendship and made for an even more complicated working environment.

"Shou, I mean it," she glanced over her shoulder from the kitchen unit as the volume on her television went up rather than disappearing altogether. Shou was... watching the news? How odd; usually he would watch variety shows. At first it had only been when he thought she wasn't watching, but ever since Vie Ghoul had started up he'd stopped hiding it. He needed the cheering up after all.

However, Shou almost never watched the news. Okay, so it was more of a celebrity-gossip-hour program, but Shou didn't watch those unless he was being featured, and Shouko always knew about those before Shou did.

"... The surprise of many fans when Hizuri Kuu-san did not exit his car alone," the announcer said eagerly as she stood in front of a large television screen – really a green screen, not that many outside showbiz would know it – which showed an image of the man in question. He was stepping out of a slate-colored car and waving at the cameras while the air-cam zoomed in. Behind him exited a girl who was probably around Shou's age, a high school student. How strange.

"Earlier this week, Hizuri-san left Tokyo in favor of spending a couple of days in his home town of Kyoto," continued the male co-announcer of the series. "He was reported as staying at a Ryoukan run by a family by the name of Fuwa, and spent two nights there. According to an impromptu press conference in front of his hotel around noon today, Hizuri-san hired the Ryoukan's apprentice chef – a girl by the name of Mogami-san, her given name is still unknown – for the duration of his stay in Tokyo to have some good home-style cooking."

"With Hizuri-san's legendary appetite, I hope that girl knows what she's getting into! On the music scene, Reino of Vie Ghoul –" The television turned off.

"Shou?" Shouko didn't even need to see his face to know his expression. The set of his shoulders, the carefully measured breath... it was just like when they saw the Vie Ghoul promotional video that had beat out Shou's pride and joy, Prisoner, how he reacted to the theft of his music and his style.

Yes, that was exactly it. He was acting as if something had been stolen from him. But what? It was a report on an actor who wasn't even living in Japan anymore. It wasn't like he was getting angry about Tsuruga Ren again.

Then the name "Fuwa" popped up in her head. The Fuwa Ryoukan. Shou's family? Was that girl his sister then? It was possible, but the newscaster had called her "Mogami", so...

"That girl... how dare he take her," Shouko's eyes widened at the pure wrath in his voice. Yes, Shou definitely knew her. "She's mine!"

Shouko stood back and watched her charge/roommate/friend/little brother rage over the injustice of Hizuri bringing "Kyouko" to Tokyo. She didn't even bother reminding him to finish his next song as the day progressed, a little cowed by his foul temper and angsty mutterings.

"How could she refuse to come with me and then go with that guy?"

**Author's Note: It occurred to me that I haven't mentioned this, but I thought I ought to say it now; the fic will not be blatantly Ren/Kyouko. Obviously they're only meeting a few days before the end of the fic. It's more of a hopeful thing I guess? Like you'll know where it will eventually lead.**

**Also, Thursday chapter may be delayed since I have a chunk of essay rough draft due Friday that I probably won't start on until Thursday. ^^"**


	15. December 17th: Yukihito

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adversaria 2_

_A commonplace book. In this case, that of the human mind and emotions._

Yukihito was going to die. Why precisely, he did not know, but when Ren had picked him up at the train station at the exact right time as usual, he knew it. He tried to think of what might warrant death, but the only underhanded thing he'd done all week was setting Ren up on a blind date, and it could have gone _that_ badly, right?

Of course Yukihito had researched the potential girl; he had received the offer from Akatoki after all, and while the manager of the young woman in question had been a rather nice girl from his middle school days, he had still looked into the information on "Mo-chan". All of her tv interviews showed a charismatic young lady who deflected questions as easily as Ren did, and she was obviously very serious about her work. Alright, so the whole green-hair thing was kind of strange, but Yukihito knew that Ren was looking for a relationship based on compatibility rather than appearances.

Apparently something in the manager's research must have been incorrect, because Ren wouldn't be this mad at him for the mere idea of sending him on a date. No calls had come from the President yet saying that the date had been a flop of publicly horrid proportions though...

"Yashiro-san, what's next on the schedule?" Yukihito flinched under the brightness of that smile. While it wasn't something he had always noticed, after the "Ruriko incident" in April, Yukihito had caught on to the fact that Ren only smiled like that when he was furious. The man would never act on that – or so it seemed – but it was still scary to think that Ren was such a good actor that he could convey both his pure rage to one person and seem so utterly _serene_ to whoever that rage was not directed towards.

"E-eto, we have a meeting with the head of the Acting Division over lunch," he didn't _dare_ glance at the date book that was in his shoulder bag. "He's ordering in a selection. We'll be there approximately an hour and a half, then we need to go to –"

"One at a time, _Yashiro-san_," Ren smiled blindingly and drove. The entire ride was silent. Really, Yukihito would prefer for Ren to _yell_ at him or _something_, but all the subtle anger – using his family name, the _smiling_, the false amiability – was getting to him. It was a pained silence. What sort of career is it when one is afraid of his employer? Normally he wasn't, but Yukihito still found himself occasionally scared in the face of the man whom he was charged to manage day in and day out. Since Dark Moon, it had happened a bit more often.

They did not talk in the star elevator that took them to see the Division Head; both of them greeted the people that they normally greeted in the building, as rare an occasion as it was, and Ren was very polite to his boss (if the man could truly be considered a boss) when they sat down at his desk. Ren even ate some of the bentou without prompting.

As usual, the television in the corner was turned to a celebrity gossip show; the purpose was, of course, to head off any bad gossip as soon as possible getting out the truth or a cover story as soon as the next show or even sooner. The atmosphere got slightly heavier when Hizuri Kuu's charming smile was brought to the screen.

Unfortunately, the Division Head didn't get the hint. "Oh, something about Kuu-shi! Wonder what he's done now," he chuckled to himself and turned up the volume.

"... This morning, just a little before noon, Hizuri Kuu-san returned to his hotel from his mini vacation, much to the joy of local reporters," the female announcer stated, doing her best to maximize her bust as she stood next to a large green screen. "However, it was to the surprise of many fans when Hizuri Kuu-san did not exit his car alone."

"Earlier this week, Hizuri-san left Tokyo in favor of spending a couple of days in his home town of Kyoto," continued the male co-announcer of the series. "He was reported as staying at a Ryoukan run by a family by the name of Fuwa, and spent two nights there. According to an impromptu press conference in front of his hotel around noon today, Hizuri-san hired the Ryoukan's apprentice chef – a girl by the name of Mogami-san, her given name is still unknown –"

Suddenly, Ren had stood up, and for a nanosecond, Yukihito thought he saw a crack in the mask of Tsuruga Ren.

"I just remembered, I need to call the President about something; I'll be two minutes, alright?" He didn't wait, and all Yukihito could do was stare after him. What had just happened? It had been nearly a week since Kuu arrived in Japan, so why was Ren suddenly freaking out when, until then, he'd been able to hide any adverse reactions to the man?

The subject on the television changed to a popular rock band, and the volume was brought back to normal.

Not for the first time, Yukihito felt he didn't know his charge at all.

**Author's Note: I'm sure some of you can guess what's going on, if not all of you. Only ten chapters left (and the boxing day omake...). Er... just be warned, I have a lot of knitting and essay writing to do before Friday.**


	16. December 17th: Kanae

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Advenient_

_Coming from outward causes. In this case, angst._

From the Love Me Section office, population 1, a loud crash sounded, likely a chair being thrown at the wall. A few of the neophytes and talents who weren't in the LME – short for "Lory's Majestic Entertainment", so it was no wonder everyone shortened it – building very often jumped. Everyone else was used to the strange noises erupting from that room.

"I can't believe it!" Kotonami Kanae managed to keep from screaming this, but she was still far from pleased. The past week had been hell; first she was told she had to babysit a full grown man – never mind that he was Hizuri Kuu, if he was going to come to Japan he should hire help himself, not mooch off of his old entertainment company – then he had proven to be as bad as her kid brothers (except he could not be thrown), _then_ he had given her a barely-passing grade.

And now? Now he had some random girl filling the babysitter role. Some backwater girl who didn't even wear make-up and looked about as homely as anyone could. And that guy had more confidence in this girl than he did in _her_, despite that stupid acting test where she had acted as his son.

"Kuon" was supposed to be in his late teens or early twenties, so Kanae had gone with her basic idea of a teenaged guy. A little rude, more than a little oblivious, and to fit with the American style, rather rebellious against her "father". It wasn't like this was the first acting gig she had had where she did such things, though she hadn't been hired to play a boy since she was fourteen.

The point was, she did an admirable job, and just like with every acting experience previous – all the school plays, the Kurara commercial try-outs, the callbacks for all her previous potential debuts as a Love Me member – she failed.

This time was no different, except she had been replaced after her job had been moistly completed. Okay, so Kuu had released her from his service, but the point was that she was supposed to start up again when he got back from Kyoto, and instead the creeper President had told her not to bother and that Kuu had hired his own staff like she'd said he should and now she had time to run lines for that role she wanted with Box R, right?

Like _she_ needed to _run lines_.

That was her greatest talent. It was what caught Lory's attention and held it throughout the audition process, the fact that she barely had to even glance and she could memorize all her lines.

Her flaw was supposed to be fixed in this stupid "Love Me" Division, but nothing of the sort had happened. And she was the only person in the entire department. The fact that Lory was obviously taking such pity in her made Kanae even madder. Nothing could make this worse, _nothing_.

An hour later she received a call stating that the Box R had found a Kaori and didn't need her.

**Author's Note: Okay, yeah, this chapter is super short… which was my intent. Sorry. I just thought that there should be a better view on the effect of Kyouko's absence than the blurb in the first chapter about Kuu. … And I needed a filler in my chapter plans ^^"**

(And to Cactus, Westernized order, it's Yukihito Yashiro. Hope that clears things up for you.)


	17. December 17th: Ren

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Advene 1  
To accede or come (to). In this case, giving in to a request long ignored._

"So, what's this I hear about you being a fairy prince and me pulling out your wings?" That all-too-familiar smirk – for it was identical to his own – reminded Ren of happier days, though he would never admit it aloud. He had been in Lory's sitting room for all of ten minutes, which was the amount of time it had taken for Lory to convince Kuu to call him Kuon and for Ren to hear out his father.

Ren didn't really want to. Well, no, he did. Because he loved his father, and five years was a long time out of contact. However, Ren also valued his career and his goals. He loved his father, but he could not be Kuu's son until he had made his own place in the entertainment industry, one which Kuu could not overshadow.

Ever since losing Katsuki, the role that Kuu was still so loved for, Ren had wondered if he really _could_ surpass Kuu, or if it was just some stupid dream. But he had vowed that when he returned to the States, it would be under his own power, because directors overseas _wanted_ him, and he was certainly stubborn enough to see that through.

"Those words were hers; we were children," Ren defended. "It made her feel better at the time." It had made him feel a bit better too, really, for that little girl who idolized him to understand him, to continue to give him encouragement despite her own problems. No father and a spiteful mother... back then, he couldn't imagine how horrible that would be. He had used everything he could to cheer her up, and he had mostly succeeded.

"It still does," Kuu was still smirking. "I'm glad you decided to meet me."

"How could I not? Bringing someone from Kuon's life here... you caught my attention," Ren smiled back, a little. "If I hadn't agreed to meet with you, what would have happened?"

And, with the most matter of fact look and tone, Kuu replied, "I would have gone home. And I'll have you know I never _once_ suggested that we should meet. Outside this room, so far as I'm concerned, you are Tsuruga Ren, a very popular Japanese actor whom I have never met. How could I suggest anything?"

Ren sent a sidelong glance to Lory, who looked rather pleased with himself.

"A certain mutual 'Boss' was rather heavy handed in portraying your desire," and his own. Even with a table between them, Ren was secretly very pleased to be with his father. However if his mother had come... well, if his father was an "oya-baka" than his mother was even worse.

"And despite that heavy-handedness you didn't give in until Kuu got back to Tokyo with a girl," Lory shook his head slightly, smiling. "It's wonderful seeing you two together again, really. But what's the story with that girl?"

"Mogami Kyouko-chan is an old friend of Kuon's; they met the last time we vacationed in Kyoto," Kuu responded before Ren could even think about it. "The girl had a troubled life. I don't know the details, but from what the Ryoukan owners were talking about, her mother all but abandoned her, and she hasn't been in contact for a while. Kuon helped cheer Kyouko-chan up."

"By... convincing her that he was a fairy?" Ren wasn't sure if Lory's expression was bewildered, amused, or on the verge of cracking up. Probably all three. "I hope you're intending to meet this girl again."

"Not really. And she convinced herself," Ren reiterated, but it probably didn't do any good. He turned to his father, hoping to change the subject. He really didn't want to meet Kyouko again; Kuu's knowledge of their history suggested at her disillusionment. "So, why did you want to speak with me?" Was it about Katsuki? He sincerely hoped not. If his father so much as commented on that debacle, Ren wasn't sure if he could keep from dissolving.

"It's... about your mother. She says she has three months to live."

Ren's eyebrows flew up. That was... very realistic.

**Author's Note: Okay, so a few chapters ago I wanted this chapter would be late... and I was right. I got most of this done before crashing last night, but... yeah. Todays will be later, and Saturday's... will either be in the morning or late evening (familial obligations). Sunday is Yule shopping day, but I think I'll be able to get that out on time too. After that it's golden up to Christmas :) (I think...)**

**Again, sorry for sucking at replying to reviews. Been knitting a lot, about 1 hat every day or two :P**

**Oh, and horror of horrors, I think I'm getting back into Neopets. (Look up ChocolateVampyr... gods that account is old! 63 months...)**


	18. December 18th: Shou

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adversary  
A hostile or antagonistic being. In this case, a person with intentions opposing those of the protagonist._

"And that's a wrap! This segment will look great in tonight's show!" The director was, of course, a big fan, and Shou couldn't blame her. She was annoying, and despite his liking for older women he felt thirty was more than just pushing it, but he lavished under the attention showered upon him anyway.

He was called in to do a performance for a variety show. He would get an interview, play a trivia game, perform a new song that had yet to hit the shelves, and just generally get some good publicity. The show itself wouldn't air until the following evening (he would be taping it, since he was going to be in a recording studio all the next day), which gave the crew plenty of time to edit it to fit with the other segments of the show.

After calling a polite "otsukare" over his shoulder to avoid seeming like a prima donna, Shou changed his clothes in his assigned room and met Shouko at a vending machine. She already had a can of cola for him from the machine and was rattling on about how the unreleased song – which was going to be released the Sunday after the episode went out anyway – would increase the show's ratings.

Shou couldn't help but feel that if Vie Ghoul pulled the same stunt, their ratings would be better. A _lot_ better.

"You have a photoshoot for the cover of the new single in an hour, and the studio is about twenty minutes driving from here; do you want to head out now?" Shouko was already making her way towards the building's exit of course, anticipating Shou's answer.

A simple "Yeah" slipped through his lips as he followed his manager, sipping his drink as he went.

As they passed the doors to the set for a popular talk show, Shou stopped. The reason was fairly simple – the door was partway open with delicate finger wrapped around the edge holding it in place as the owner of the hand talked to someone else inside. And Shou recognized that voice very well.

"You can't eat all of that without some sort of liquid," admonished the all-too-familiar voice. "There's a vending machine in the next hall; I'll get you some water if there is any. Is soda alright otherwise?"

There must have been some sort of response, because the door opened more fully, and the figure that Shou knew to expect stepped through. Average height, long black hair up in a pony tail – even seeing just her back, Shou could tell _so_ easily that it was Kyouko.

He had privately wished that he _wouldn't_ meet her. He was angry, quite angry, that she had come to Tokyo on the behalf of someone other than him. He could barely stand it. But he also knew that, logically, she had been hired out by his parents and that it couldn't have been her idea or anything anyways. She always did what his parents wanted.

Shouko hadn't even noticed he wasn't following anymore, Shou noticed idly as she turned the corner without even glancing back.

Kyouko turned around, obviously intending to head to the same vending machine that Shou had come from. He almost relished the complete and utter surprise on her face, but he also felt rather sour about it. Two years ago, when he was still in Kyoto, she had a sort of "Shou-chan radar" that would make her hyper aware of his presence, no matter the circumstances.

"Hi," Shou decided to pull a casual feeling to the meeting, despite his own tension. He wasn't going to take out his anger on her, because once that dam was released, everything would come pouring out. His rage at Vie Ghoul, his frustration with his career, the desolation of being left by his fans... all of it.

"Sh-Shou-kun," her eyes immediately darted down submissively. Guiltily. She had called him "Shou-_chan_" since they were kids.

"Enjoying Tokyo?" Regret not coming with me? Do you regret staying behind and living with my parents with me to dote on? He didn't say these, but he felt they were implied.

"I don't regret not coming before, if that's what you mean," Kyouko shook her head a little, pony tail bobbing. "I wouldn't follow you under false pretenses like that."

"Hn. The only falseness was what _you_ thought," he did _not_ want to argue, not right outside a talk show studio, not with a girl whom the gossip shows were already talking about when she had only just arrived in the city. Not with his best friend since childhood who had hadn't seen in two years.

_Shou scowled at his parents, standing angrily from the low table he was situated at with his parents. "No way! There's no way I'm going to stay here just so I can marry some boring local girl!"_

_"Shoutarou! You will not speak that way to your parents; have you no sense of _on (1)_?!" his father met him with less volume, but his voice more resolute. "Even if she hated you, that girl would marry you from her _on_ to us! You should learn from her."_

_"Of course she would marry me, any girl would marry me, but there's no way I would ever marry Kyouko!"_

_There was a gasp from behind the door._

_A week later, Shou asked Kyouko to accompany him to Tokyo, knowing that he would need someone to take care of him while he was there. She refused; they saw each other once more, at the Ryoukan that night when he was sneaking out._

_She stared after him, crying. For the first time, he was not frozen by her tears. Instead, he ran as fast as he could to where he was meeting his companion._

"I suppose so," Kyouko shifted uneasily. "Listen, I-"

"Whatever," Shou shrugged nonchalantly, even though she wasn't looking at him. "Just make sure you go home, or my parents will be worried."

"You don't need to worry about me staying in Tokyo and ruining anything for you," Kyouko's stance was suddenly more confident as she squared her shoulders and looked him in the eye for the first time since turning around. "I owe a greater _on_ to your parents and to you than to do anything as foolish as that. What would _I_ do in Tokyo anyway?"

Shou almost smiled. And he almost scowled. It was confusing; he wanted Kyouko in Tokyo with him, but only when he came to fetch her. At least her sense of duty was still strong, stronger than his had ever been.

He moved to walk past her. "The vending machine in the next hall doesn't have water; try the one next to the Bridge Rock studio."

And he left, secure in the knowledge that Kyouko was still his and _only_ his.

**Author's Note: Sorry it's late, will have today's chap up on time though (late tonight, but still today). Yeah, I broke my word about only having one section from Shou's PoV. I **_**was**_** going to do this from Kyouko's... but I can't (next paragraph kinda explains it, sorta). So, yeah, more screen time for Shou, though I will give you a tiny spoiler and say that, aside from the omake (Boxing Day), this is the last time you will see him.**

**Kyaaa! I read chapter 150 of Skip Beat last night X3 I'm in total squee mode right now. It was difficult to get myself in a bad enough mood to write this chapter... then I remembered that my friends broke my wand on Thursday, and my little Kia-grudges came out to play.**

**(Yes I have – sorry, **_**had**_** - a wand; it's for my Tonks cosplay. Club yearbook photos were yesterday, and Otaku Anonymous did theirs in cosplay)**

(1) _On_ (pronounced "oh-n") is a Japanese word that is... very difficult to define. We don't have an equivalent in English, but basically it means "a debt/obligation". But it's a lot deeper than that... I'd suggest looking it up or reading The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (a book written in the forties), chapters 5 and 6.


	19. December 18th: Ren

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adverse  
Being or acting in a contrary direction. In this case, fate._

"Ah, that's her, right?"

"Yes, I think it must be. She's rather plain looking."

"Idiot; she wasn't hired for her _looks_."

"I know that, I'm just saying that she isn't exactly the prettiest girl out there."

"To be fair, she's not wearing any make-up."

"Well yeah... but make-up's like cheating, y'know?"

"You mean like that girl, Hana-chan, you dated last year? She was ugly as an ox without the make-up."

"Don't remind me."

"Still, following that logic, a girl with her looks would look pretty cute with some make-up."

"If it was applied correctly."

"If it was applied correctly.... Wait, why are we talking about make-up?"

"Because – oh! Hello Tsuruga-sama! Come on in," the security guard smiled warmly at him, and Ren's reply was rather bland, but still convincing. The guards been gossiping about a girl, one inside the studio from the way they had been peeking through the glass; probably an intern, or a technician. His mind vehemently denied the possibility that it might be a certain Kyoto girl, because even though Kuu had mentioned they would both be at Fuji for one hour of overlap, their studio was on the complete opposite end of the building.

Ren had been asked to do a spot on the variety show "Bridge Rock", and would be spending the next two hours at the station; Kuu was doing a talk show that would be ending within an hour. There was no chance of them running into one another, and almost no chance that Ren would meet Kyouko.

"I'm going to go get dinner from upstairs; I'll see you in fifteen minutes, alright Ren?" Yukihito had been rather chipper since the day previous. Ren assumed it was because his assistant thought he wasn't going to be punished for the "blind date" debacle.

Oh how wrong he was.

"Of course, Yukihito-san," he smiled, only a small bit of the remaining ire simmering beneath the surface, not enough to be worrisome. He had ten minutes before he ought to be in his dressing room, half an hour before meeting with the hosts to go over the material, and another half hour before the show would start and he would be escorted to the studio (with a live studio audience special for the winter solstice) by a man in a rooster costume.

All in all, a regular variety show spot. It had been a while since the last time he had the time to participate in one, and found himself looking forward to it.

Turning left down the appropriate hall, Ren was thrown out of his musings by the person he least wanted to come across. What was _she_ doing here?

"Oh, Tsuruga-san," blank green eyes looked up at him. He almost hadn't recognized her; without any make-up on, and with a bleach-brown wig she looked ordinary. "Good afternoon. Or is it evening?" She didn't seem to actually care.

"Nani-san," Ren acknowledged. Then, he inquired as to her presence, and precisely why she was in disguise. It was a good disguise – the school girl uniform wouldn't remind anyone of a pop star, and her appearance was rather slip shod – but Ren was a trained professional. And it was hard to forget the emotionless singer.

"This is my street face," she revealed. "I can't walk around with green hair and not be noticed. I just had an interview. Well, good luck." She walked completely past him and Ren couldn't help but be glad the conversation had lasted less than twenty seconds. Alright, so Mo wasn't that creepy, but as an actor Ren transformed his emotions by becoming someone else and tricked people with real emotions. Mo tricked people with fake emotions.

He didn't like that girl in the least.

Brushing off the encounter – at least now he knew who the security guards had been speaking about, he continued on his way to the dressing room.

It wasn't until he ran into yet another person that he didn't want to run into that he realized that Mo had come from the wrong direction to have been the object of the conversation that Ren had been unwillingly privy to. He didn't recognize her at first, seeing only a profile, but after seeing her in the news, it wasn't too hard for Ren to imagine the little girl he had met growing into a young woman such as this.

Her stance was hesitant, but still confident. Her features had matured and smoothened out, and her hair was in a hasty ponytail rather than the pigtails of her youth. There were no tears, but Ren thought, for a moment, that something was wrong.

He would have dismissed her, not wanting a confrontation. She had been a part of Kuon's life, and Ren hadn't been Kuon for five years; she was obviously doing rather alright, and was of no concern to him anymore. He could not imagine she had forgotten him, not by the words that Kuu had spoken the night previous, but he wasn't Kuon anymore now than Kuon had been Ren.

Kyouko stared at him wide eyes for approximately three seconds, still half bent over to retrieve a water bottle from the machine. She bowed, said one sentence, and fled.

"I don't mind that you aren't a fairy."

**Author's Note: Sorry this is so late in the evening (I'm in the Pacific time zone and it's after midnight. Nurr). My familial obligations ran longer than expected, and it took me a while to figure out how to intro this chapter. The next few ought to be more prompt... hopefully (tomorrow is shopping day, and my dad is taking over the computer so... I might not actually be able to post. I'm super inconsistent the past few days, huh?).**


	20. December 19th: Kuu

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Advection 2  
__The horizontal transport of atmospheric properties. In this case, across the Pacific Ocean._

"Thank you very much for keeping me fed, Kyouko-chan," Kuu smiled pleasantly at the girl in question. He was going to miss her cooking. Well, he'd miss her company too; she was a bright girl, and had revealed herself to be rather strange once she got comfortable around him, but she really was a brilliant cook. Maybe he could get Lory to hook her up with a cooking show? Though Kyouko probably wouldn't be too interested.

"No trouble, Kuu-shi," she bowed politely, as best she could with the seat belt holding her to her seat, and Kuu lamented that he hadn't convinced her to go yobisute. It was so weird to be back in Japan and hear "sama" "shi" or "san" attached to his name; back in America everyone would just say "Kuu". He tried convincing her to drop it, but she was rather staunch on that point. "Thank you for the opportunity to visit Tokyo."

"You mean for seeing..." he trailed off, not wanting to say the names. The chauffeur could hear them after all, and it wouldn't do to mention Kuon. "What were the names? Tsuruga... and that singer boy?"

Kyouko's expression froze before warming. "Yes, it was nice to see them both. They've changed a lot. Shou-kun is taller now, and I can tell that he loves it here a lot. And Tsuruga-san was a surprise. Thank you for that."

"Not at all," he waved her off. She was so lively after seeing that Shou-boy and Kuon, all in the course of getting drinks for their early dinner the day before. He'd been afraid, when she mentioned it, that she would be sad, but... but the difference between her nervous self and the happy girl beside him was rather large.

Which of them had done it though? Kuu couldn't help but wonder. If one or both had sent her letters, would she have been that way already, or would she still have been cowed? Would she go back to being cowed when she got back to the Ryoukan? He hoped not. He wasn't the least bit traditional anymore, and much preferred even this slightly more spirited girl to the nervous one he had brought with him.

The car pulled to a stop at the airport where a multitude of fans waited outside to bid him good bye and, inside, a host of celebrities waited to do the same.

"Have a good flight, Kuu-shi," Kyouko said, a smile brightening her features.

"You'll be alright on the train?" He didn't know if she'd ever taken the bullet train before; she'd never been to Tokyo before, so...

"Yes, and I've been told I have the evening off to get settled back in, as a reward for getting one hundred percent on my tests. I'll be perfectly refreshed to start preparing for the Christmas Party." A fire lit in her eyes.

Kuu opened the door and stepped into the din of his fans.

If he could, he'd take her with him. He and Julie had always wanted a daughter after all.

**Author's Note: Muahaha :D At this point I'm just looking forward to chapter 25... and the omake of course. The omake is eating my brain but I refuse to write it yet. Lots of knitting to do though; I have 4, maybe 5 hats to knit before Christmas (well, only one needs to be done on Christmas day, the rest won't be gifted 'til Boxing Day, but you get the point). Hats kinda take priority, but since I can knit about 1 a day things should be okay on the update front.**

**Ugh, hate it when FFN has those "I'm not going to send you your alerts" days. Only just now receiving the reviews from Friday. How irksome. I had to check them manually for once. *sigh*  
**


	21. December 20th: Makoto

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adventual_

_Related to the season of Advent. In this case, a day within that season._

The change was astronomical, but it was also quickly subdued. Still, her eyes were brighter than before, and her smiles more genuine. No one else could tell, though they probably felt just that much more welcome to the Ryoukan. But Makoto had taught Kyouko everything she knew about their industry, and she could see just how pleased the girl truly was after her short sojourn to the eastern capital.

At first, she had attributed it to Kyouko being pleased to have finally achieved her vaunted perfect grade. They had sent word to her mother the day the scores went up on the internet, only two days after the tests had been taken, but nothing had been sent by the woman in return on that matter. She must have received the email, but she didn't reply... and Kyouko didn't seem to care in the least bit. In that one instant when the subject was breached she had blinked in surprise – had she forgotten about the grade, or her mother's tough policy? – before smiling and saying it was fine.

As far as Makoto could tell, it was. It was frightening. The workaholic girl was still as much of one, but her focus seemed to have shifted.

With a slight huff in her head, Makoto went back to preparing for the Christmas Party preparations. "Kyouko, we're going to have another VIP guest on Christmas," she did not, of course, mention the girl's birthday. They would celebrate just before or after the party, depending on time, and no more would be said of it. "Would you make sure that that room is prepared?"

If anything, Kyouko's smile grew wider, and Makoto grew suspicious. When Hizuri Kuu had come, barely over one week previous, Kyouko's smile had faltered, just like every other time when she was told to tidy Shoutarou's old room for a guest. As she skipped off, entirely too happy for her previous most hated task, Makoto was stumped.

Slowly, she made her way to the kitchen where her husband was deciding on the menu for the party. It was tradition that he would invent some sort of blend between a Western food and traditional Japanese food; last year had been a green tea cake with peppermint, the year before that an interesting soup (why anyone would combine pumpkin and pear was beyond her) with a Japanese garnish.

Kyouko had actually made a suggestion this year, to make sugar cookies – it was a tradition that Hizuri had supposedly informed her of – and decorate them in a Japanese fashion rather than a Christmas related one. Makoto scoffed at the idea, but she supposed it wouldn't be too bad.

Still, to have the Ryoukan pander to the crowds with such a gimmick... she was only the matron though, the head server, not the chef. And with how pleased Kyouko had been with the admission that this was feasible, Makoto couldn't bring herself to criticize the idea.

_I never would have been a proper mother in law to her_, Makoto thought to herself. _Even with Shoutarou gone, I like her too much._ (1)

"Have you settled on a menu?" she asked without segue upon entering the kitchens. Kenta only nodded as he was looking over a long list, probably what they would require from the grocer. "Kyouko has been very happy since last night, have you noticed? She was even pleased to go clean Shoutarou-kun's old room." Again, no segue. It didn't faze the man in the least.

"I think this is her way of telling us she met Shoutarou," Kenta admitted, a soft smile on his face, "and that he is doing well in Tokyo."

And, despite herself, Makoto _almost_ teared up as she buried her face in her husband's shoulder, smiling.

**Author's Note: Daw, touchy feely moment for Makoto. Thought I'd belt this out real quick. Off to hang out with all my alumnus friends – bye! (Sorry! I thought I put this up before leaving but apparently not. Here it is)  
**

**I'm running out of words to use for the titles... I have a word for day 25 (three guesses what, and the first 2 don't count), but I need to find them for the next three days. Hopefully I won't have to resort to using adventure any more, might have to use adventuress again though (there is one more definition for it...).**

(1) In traditional Japanese culture, the mother in law is very disapproving and generally hates the daughter in law. This goes beyond the cliche in Western culture, as the Japanese mother in law is constantly criticizing and even has the right, if she is displeased enough, to force her son and the daughter in law (whom the husband usually has made an agreement with the father of for mutual benefit) to divorce.


	22. December 22nd: Lory

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others. I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Advantageous  
Furnishing convenience or opportunity. In this case, in a career._

"Hm, well, I suppose you _can_ fake a role like this, with such shallow love," Lory acquiesced as he looked at the film synopsis he had been presented with. The lead, whom Ren wished to portray, was a down-on-his-luck ex-stage-actor who makes a foolish bet that, if he can't get a role in the next production done by his favorite production company, he will give up on acting and get a "better" job. The next production happens to be a musical, and he cannot read music, so he hires a music tutor whom he eventually falls in love with over the course of the film.

Ren was hardly any better in the music respect, simply because he had little-to-no-interest, but the director had had Ren sing for him before properly offering the job and seemed satisfied. Really, Lory was jealous; he'd never heard Ren sing, even when he was still Kuon. It was so unfair! Still, it was the sort of scenario Ren could act out, even without personal experience in romantic love.

And a certain actor was, predictably, displeased with the use of "fake". "I do not _fake_," he was still sore about his role as Katsuki, obviously.

"Of course not," Lory placated, but they both knew that he didn't mean it. When it came to "love", Ren just didn't have it in him, not yet. If his name weren't so huge and it weren't so late in the game, Lory would have stuck him in the Love Me section for sure. Alright, so Ren craved the attention of his fans, but that was different from craving romance.

Honestly, had he _no_ pride? No sense of love for a woman? It was no wonder Lory had stopped taking Ren's advice in his dating sims, because it simply ended badly. Kenta-kun left him for being too blunt, Shinichi-kun never even considered the idea, because the subtle approach would never work on a mystery-otaku like him, and worst of all, the kind Ichijo-kun had gotten a restraining order! (1)

"But enough of that!" Lory waved the subject away, having already given his consent for the film Ren wanted. "I've sent your video tape. It will be delivered on Christmas Eve, and Kuu agreed to wait until Christmas to watch it."

"Mom always liked Christmas," Ren agreed. He shifted a little in his chair, "So did..." He stopped and then shook his head. "I haven't seen Maria-chan around since before Kuu came to Tokyo. How is she?"

"As well as can be expected." Which was to say, not at all. "And will you be available for a while on Maria-chan's birthday?" He was hopeful, and it showed. Maria was only getting worse lately, and while Ren's schedule had been more open than anticipated – losing Dark Moon had made enormous gaps in his schedule for a good six months, and they hadn't filled them all – he was also traveling outside of the city a lot more often.

"I have a photoshoot on the twenty-fifth... but I will have time to spend with Maria on her birthday, yes," Ren smiled sadly and nodded to his president. Maria absolutely adored Ren, but that didn't make her immune to her "moods" while in his presence.

Ren left, and Lory leaned back in his chair. It was as if Kuu had never come to visit, the way, Ren acted. No, not quite. Before Kuu's visit Ren's moods had been darker. Perhaps... but how curious!

It was as if Dark Moon had never happened.

**Author's Note: Okay, so this story reaching 10k reads? I'm pretty shocked. Okay, so it's not a big number at all, but considering I'm kinda just messing around with this one and subtly introducing some of my other story ideas for the fandom. (I told you guys one, but I wonder if anyone noticed the second?)**

**And sorry for the lateness. Spent most of yesterday watching Nabari no Ou with my Otaku club, and when I got home my computer decided it hates me. I've tamed it now though :)**

(1) If you get the references, kudos. If not, Kenta is Usui Kenta from Karin, Shinichi is Kudou Shinichi from Detective Conan, and Ichijo is Miyabi Ichijo, the boy in the dating sim that Houshakuji Renge of Ouran fangirls over.


	23. December 23rd: Yukihito

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adversaria 3  
Notes, commentaries, etc. In this case, in regards to a certain person._

Yukihito _huffed_. Something had happened at Fuji, four days ago, something that made Ren forget entirely about punishing him for the blind date. Not that he minded that particularly, but he wanted very much to know _what_ had happened, how it happened, and who with. Because something had surely happened.

Considering Ren was Yukihito's business – selling him in the best way possible to the public, making him the most attractive commodity out there, which made the manager feel more like a pimp than his actual job title sometimes – he felt that knowing everything going on in Ren's life, within certain limits, was also his business. He knew his desire to know why Ren had been tense while Kuu was in Tokyo was beyond those limits, or else it had to do with Dark Moon and Tsukigomori, which was also beyond those limits.

This, however...

"Was it a girl?" He teased brazenly. "I hard Honoka was in the studio for an interview that day. Did you fall in _love_?" He knew that wasn't it, because it was Ren and Ren didn't get happy because of _girls_. Besides, Ren and Honoka had worked together before in modeling, and obviously showed no interest in one another at the time. It was merely a method of trying to get Ren to open up a little.

Ren _hmmed_ thoughtfully. "Well, I did run into a couple of girls before the interview," he acceded, looking and sounding rather disinterested. Yukihito _almost_ believed him. Almost.

"And were either of them involved in making you so strangely happy?" Yukihito pressed. He was probably pushing his luck, but give him a millimeter and he would take a kilometer.

"One of them was that girl you set me up on a date with."

Deadpan. No fake smile. No real smile.

_I'm going to be killed_, Yukihito realized not for the first time. _He's going to somehow get into an accident and I'll die and he'll be uninjured and the car will be salvageable and he'll get a new manager that doesn't set him up on dates or break his electronics and no one will remember poor Yashiro Yukihito who did his best to keep the Demon King in line... Well, if I'm going to go, it might as well be with a bang._

"And the other girl? You specifically said Nani Mo-san was just one of them," Yukihito pointed out, trying his best to sound oblivious to his fate. He wasn't a very good actor.

"Just a girl getting some water bottles, from the machine," Ren waved off. That was... suspicious. As if sensing Yukihito's suspicion, _and giving into it without prompting_, he continued. "Kuu's assistant girl." He looked thoughtful. Soft. Not in the least bit interested in swerving into oncomng traffic and killing his meddling manager.

Completely and utterly stumped, Yukihito relined in his seat. Maybe he wasn't going to die; maybe Ren didn't mind that he was prying into his private life. Maybe Ren's good attitude was going to stay put. Maybe Ogata would call and beg to get Ren back as Katsuki, even though the series had been broadcasting for two months.

Oh, who was he kidding? Yukihito wasn't going to be alive long enough to open his New Year's cards (1).

**Author's Note: Only 2 chapters left (excluding the omake)! I intend to get 24 out earlier tomorrow than usual (so before 5 pm? Ehheh), and chapter 25 at the stroke of Midnight my time (Pacific – so 8 hours slower than British time, k?). But my dad has his LJ community _dear_santa to run, so I will probably get booted off and not make those goals. Just so ya know.**

**(For those of you who do not recall, right before Kyouko learns her Natsu-model-walk, Honoka, a model, is a guest on Bridge Rock. And yes, I do love referencing chapters of the manga from ages ago)**

**And it looks like I might not have to reuse any words/definition combos after all. Assuming I still have one for tomorrow... Hm... I think Adversaria works for all the Yukihito chapters though, ne?**

(1) 年賀状 (ねんがじょう, Nengajou), or New Year's cards, are huge in Japan; it's customary to send them to all your friends, family, and people who have helped you throughout the year (you are exempt from sending them if there was a death in the family that year). The typically have the animal of the coming zodiac year (so tiger this year), sometimes the year passing (ox/cow), and sometimes are actually a lotto ticket. We made our own in my Japanese class this year (there was a cow skull on mine, and the tiger was nomming a rat (2008).


	24. December 24th: Kyouko and Ren

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Adventuress 2_

_A female adventurer (Adventurer: A person who has, seeks, or enjoys adventure). In this case, the heroine._

Kyouko hummed pleasantly to herself as she finished setting out the buffet for the first part of the Christmas Party. She had always loved the party and looked forward to it each year, not least because it was the way in which her birthday was celebrated each year. Alright, so most of the guests barely acknowledged that, but there were always those who were genuinely pleased for her continued existence.

She hadn't looked forward to it at all last year, her first birthday without Shou since he left for Tokyo. She had been too busy worrying about him. He may have shown his true colors (or perhaps the love-blinders were removed from Kyouko's eyes) but... well, she couldn't stop caring about her best friend at the drop of a hat. Even if her feelings of romantic love had not been returned, her filial love _had_, or so she liked to imagine. And Shou didn't seem to hate her when they met again, so...

So everything was wonderful. She beamed. Shou had obviously found someone to take care of him in the city without Kyouko to do his cooking and cleaning, so there was really nothing to worry about. He would never need to come back to the Ryoukan he hated; his room was no longer his room.

"Kyouko, your gift," she turned around hastily to see Shou's parents. Makoto was holding a finely wrapped gift, which Kyouko took gently. The ribbon was undone and the paper peeled away to reveal blue silk.

"Such a fine kimono," her eyes widened as she held it to full length, a wide yellow obi slung over her arm. The embroidered birds stood out well – probably machine embroidered, otherwise it would have been near impossible – and Kyouko almost couldn't hold back her squeal. It was just like an Ojou-sama's kimono. Soft, shimmery, and _so_ pretty!

"You will wear it tonight, of course," Makoto continued, plainly ignoring the ecstasy that Kyouko was in. Not that this was strange; Kyouko knew her princess-dreams were completely ignored by just about everyone. "Guests will begin arriving in one hour, so I suggest you get ready now."

Kyouko bowed her head in acquiescence and hurried off to change.

* * *

"It was nice of you to stay so long for Maria-chan, but we were still almost late," Yukihito sighed, obviously exasperated with his charge. Ren only shrugged, unrepentant. His perfect attendance record was broken in June anyway, when he and Yukihito had both been ill, so it wasn't like he could boast about that anymore. "If only that young model you were working with were more competent, then we could get back to Tokyo tomorrow."

"It's not all bad," Ren waved off the sentiment. "You purposefully made it so that I have Christmas off, after all."

"Well, yes, but you have several scenes to shoot and an interview on the twenty-sixth, and if we have to stay too late tomorrow then we'll have to stay in the hotel an extra night," Yukihito pointed out. He was probably annoyed at Ren for dissuading his logic. Or maybe he had hoped to do something himself tomorrow? Did Yukihito's family live in Tokyo?

... Ren had no idea. But with how much of a workaholic Yukihito was, not once requesting time off to spend with family, Ren suspected not.

"We'll be fine, I'll make her pose how we need to," the actor stated finally, quite assured in his own ability. He could make others act how he wanted easily enough, and in modeling it was no different. "I'm looking forward to sleeping tonight."

"Sleep? Didn't you say our hotel is having a party tonight?" Yukihito cast a curious glance to the taller male.

Ren only nodded absently and parked the car.

**Author's Note: Sorry for the lateness compared to my goal-time. My turn on a Holiday Round Robin came up this morning, and I wanted to get it out of the way (and then I had to finish my holiday shopping *cough*). Still need to do a bunch of knitting, so I might not get to tomorrow's chapter 'til... tomorrow ^^" One left though, then it's just the omake. *is excited***

**I'm sure you can all guess what happens from here on out.  
**


	25. December 25th: Kyouko

Warnings: AU, was kinda spur-of-the-moment, angst, probable coarse language, more warnings later, I'm sure.

Disclaimers: Skip Beat belongs to Nakamura Yoshiki, Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams – the magazine that publishes the manga) and... others I dunno who else. Not me though, I assure you (else Shou would pop up more often, Kyouko wouldn't be so childish, Ren would have more success with her, and the art would be a LOT worse. So it's good I don't own it – Ren is too pretty!!!)

_Advent  
A coming into place, view, or being. In this case, a person._

Kyouko stretched happily as she sat up in her futon. It was nearing six in the morning, five hours since she had gone to sleep the night previous. And it had been a good night, such a good night! The party was contained as always, nothing wild like what she heard about at school or saw occasionally on television; it was a party of sophisticated adults after all. She thought she looked quite good in her kimono, and it didn't feel as much like _work_ when she put on her make-up for the evening. That little bit of enchantment she pursued had come to be, just for that night.

She had also received more attention that usual. Many of the party attendees had realized that she was the girl Kuu hired; some backhanded compliments about her "cleaning up well", often coupled with comments along the lines off "why didn't she try to look good when she was with Kuu-sama?" were thrown her way. It was hard not to blush, but even if she did the make-up would have hidden most of it.

The reason for her early waking was that, sometime in the middle of the party, perhaps around nine or ten, she was informed by the matron that their VIP guest had arrived and, in favor of attending the party, gone straight to bed, as had his aide. They would be leaving early in the morning most likely, and Kyouko was to prepare their meal since the Fuwa couple would be staying up later than her and would therefore be sleeping later. Kyouko had accepted of course, and woke just when she meant to.

Dressing quickly in presentable clothes that would still be safe to cook in, Kyouko darted off to the kitchen and started preparing the standard breakfast selection. She didn't worry about any Western style dishes - after all, who would come to a Ryoukan and ask for pancakes or some such? - instead putting her whole heart into the miso and fish. A chef's talent is measured by her simplest dish, after all.

There was a quiet clack from the dining room as the door slid open; that would be the VIP then. Kyouko set everything on a tray in the most attractive manner possible before centering herself and preparing for what would likely be only an hour or less of entertaining before she was expected to start cleaning up from the evening previous.

Then she stepped out, and saw just who her VIP was.

It was him. It had only been a few days since their last encounter, that brief meeting where Kyouko had acknowledged her knowledge of who he was. He had looked so... shocked to see her, and she had been only half so surprised to see him when she had been getting water bottles for Kuu. Now, the situation was reversed. Never in a million years would she have expected... yet he obviously knew she would be there. Even without Kuu, he probably would have known.

This time he wasn't alone though.

"K- anou... Tsuruga-sama, your breakfast is ready," her eyes darted to the brown haired man tailing him. He worked with or for Kuon. It was unlikely had any idea who the man really was, but it was always a possibility. He didn't look at her for the slip, so it was unlikely.

She couldn't think of him as Kuon right then though. She was serving Tsuruga Ren and his... what had Makoto called him? An aide? Didn't celebrities have managers? Either way, Kyouko was not serving the son of Hizuri Kuu; this was not a person she had ever equated with magic, he was just Tsuruga Ren and she was just Mogami Kyouko, people who had, for an instant, seen one another. No big deal. She slipped into the role quickly, doubting that the bespectacled man even noticed the change in her attitude.

Kuon - no, Ren - smiled. "Thank you."

And, to Kyouko, it felt as though she was being thanked for much more than simply preparing breakfast.

**Author's Note: In my imagination, the photo shoot ran extra late, Ren returns to spend one more night, and in the morning asks Kyouko to accompany him back to Tokyo as she had with his father. At first reticent due to her _on_ to the Fuwa family, she also recalls how hefty her _on_ to Ren is and how much she would like to go to Tokyo, so she accepts. Is at first Yukihito's assistant, then a minor actress (maybe in Love Me), then a proper actress, and eventually she and Ren fall in love. Or something like that.  
**

**And that's it :D Happy Christmas everyone! And happy late Channukah, too (since it ended nearly a week ago... I kinda wanna play draedle again, but I lost mine *sniff*). Boxing Day Omake will be up on Boxing Day (which is actually the day I'm doing my xmas festivities with the family... ehheh), but it really has nothing to do with the story's plot. Just a bit of fun :) (Actually, I might do a second omake... maybe) No sequels though. Anyone can play around with the idea as they please!**

**... And I'm going to bed now ^^" Night all!  
**


	26. Omake

Warnings: AU, mild swearing

Disclaimer: Same as every disclaimer in the previous chapters. Not mine.

_Omake  
__A Japanese word meaning "extra" or "bonus"; a free thing given in addition to the main product (ie: a store may give a pencil as an omake for purchasing school supplies, or a manga-ka may write an omake chapter that is only in the published book and not available in the magazine). In this case, just a silly extra chapter._

_-Shou-_

Kyouko stared at him, and he stared back. It had been almost two years and suddenly... suddenly Shou was back at the Ryoukan, not saying a word. He looked healthy, which made the girl happy. She had been worried he wouldn't be well taken care of in Tokyo, but obviously this was not the case as he had grown taller and his structure had improved, which meant he must have been eating well.

In retrospect, it made sense that he, a big rock star, would have someone to take care of him.

Finally, Shou looked away.

"Anou... Shou-kun..." Kyouko bit her lip and averted her gaze from her old crush. "Why... why are you here? Do you have a show in Kyoto tonight?" He didn't; she would have known.

"I'm on vacation," his gaze was still averted. "My room was converted to a guest room."

"Yes." What else could she say? "It's been a long time."

"Well duh, I'm famous! I can't exactly take time off all the time, you know," he shot her a dead pan "no duh" type stare. "Things are doing well here, I take it?"

She nodded. He said nothing.

"I'll be right back," Kyouko stood from her position, ignoring her protocol in favor of Shou's needs. She came back a minute later with a pudding cup and a spoon.

The way Shou looked at her, it was like she was his guardian angel, sent to deliver him from hell.

"You always did know me so well," Shou said happily as he dug into the pudding. "You've been following the celebrity world since I entered it, right? Have you heard of the band Vie Ghoul?"

Kyouko furrowed her brow. "Be... Beagle?"

For a moment, Shou stared at her like she'd grown a second head. Then a small snort escaped, which escalated to a snicker, a chuckle, a snerk, before laughter exploded out of him and he was rolling on the floor.

A month later, Shou was back on top of the charts.

_-Ruriko-_

Kyouko calmly served tea to the young starlet who was gracing the Ryoukan with her presence. She was really very cute, with skin as soft and smooth as freshly fallen snow, and a voice that screamed _princess_ to Kyouko's young soul. There was an instinctual need to help her, no matter what.

But Kyouko was willing to put aside instinct in this case.

Ruriko had ordered her food three times, each time fussing over a minor detail that in no way affected her food. She wanted it on better plates – they served on the best china in town! – and refused to eat the second meal because the plate with her fish was too close to the bowl of miso.

"Do you think I won't notice if you just scootch the bowls around?! The miso will taste like fish because you put the bowls too close together and I refuse to eat fishy-miso!" She shouted angrily at Kyouko. Her manager was sitting quietly, cowed by her while eating the first refused order.

Kyouko stood up and glared angrily at the girl. "You will eat it; you will _not_ insult Fuwa-shi as a chef, do you understand?! Your miso does not taste like fish, and if you do not eat it then you are of no use as a human being!"

Cowed, Ruriko ate her perfectly untainted food and, damn it, she _enjoyed_ it.

_-Maria-_

"Uh, sir, not to be rude, but I don't see what you mean by 'fixing' this girl," Kyouko looked dubiously at the older man. He was quite good looking for his age, but it was kind of scary how he had entered with a trumpet band to announce him and rode in wearing shining armor upon a white stallion with a little girl in a princess gown and riding a pony behind him. This had set Kyouko's princess fantasies into full-on Land of Magic mode, but she came back to reality when the man – Takarada Lory, he's said – had explained what he wanted. "I work at a Ryoukan, I'm not a psychologist."

Lory pouted, "But you fixed Ruriko-chan! The director of her new movie stopped complaining about her attitude and everything!"

"I... sir, I haven't done anything of the sort," Kyouko shook her head nervously. "All I did was make Ruriko-san eat her food, nothing more. And I'm very sorry for doing even that. I really have no idea what you want me to do. A-and... and you're scaring away the other customers sir."

"Hm, that is true... perhaps it would be better to discuss this at your home?"

Kyouko almost flinched. "This is my home; I live here."

Lory blinked. "Well then," he paused, "are you the daughter of the owner? You can't be old enough to be living on your own yet, after all."

"I'm not, just... just a friend of the family," Kyouko shuffled her feet nervously. The little girl, Maria, looked up at her with doe-like eyes.

"Do Onee-sama's parents hate her too?" She asked quietly. Kyouko, unable to come up with a suitable answer, only nodded. "Poor Onee-sama! Why do they hate you?"

"I... well, my mother is very strict, so I'm a burden to her because I got in the way of her career," she wasn't sure why she was telling this to a little girl. Chlidren shouldn't be so disillusioned. But hadn't Maria said "too"? "She expects perfection, and even though I try I'm not perfect."

"What about your father?" Maria pressed, her eyes lit by an unholy fire and curious all at once.

"I... don't have one."

Maria hugged her tightly around the middle and refused to let go for a full hour while her grandfather apologized to the Fuwa family for disturbing the peace of their Ryoukan.

That night, Maria replied to her father's email.

_-Ren-_

"Don't tell me," Kyouko sighed when the door opened to reveal a celebrity of the LME agency, "Takarada-sama sent you here so I could 'fix' whatever personality problem you have?" She really ought to start charging LME for this. Takarada had sent her checks for helping Maria and Kanae, hefty checks, but that was beside the point. She hadn't cashed those after all.

"Not to my knowledge," the man, Tsuruga Ren lifted one eyebrow before turning halfway to look at the person behind him, his manager. "Did he?"

The manager, a thin, tall man with glasses and brown hair looked sheepish, "Er, well, he_ did_ tell me to arrange for us to stay in this Ryoukan, but I thought it was just because he liked it. Is there some trait that he wants you to fix?"

Tsuruga's face froze for a split second, and Kyouko realized that it must be so.

"No, not at all," he shook his head quickly before turning back to Kyouko. "You would be the girl Maria-chan calls 'Onee-sama' then? I have to thank you for helping her."

"Eh, it was really no big deal," Kyouko sighed internally. What could his problem be though, the great Tsuruga Ren?

"You convinced her somehow to talk with her father; it's an accomplishment," he was smiling a brilliant smile like what Kyouko imagined a prince would have, or... or Kuon, but Kuon was all grown up and living in the Fairy Kingdom now, so there was no use thinking about that.

Two hours later, Kyouko still had no idea what she was supposed to fix. Maybe They really had only been sent here for lodgings? Kyouko settled in her room and tried to study, but her mind kept on wandering. Hoping to focus better, she went to her school bag and grabbed Corn. She wasn't sad or angry, but she thought that pouring some of her annoyance and frustration into the little stone would help.

A tap on her door alerted her to company, and she answered immediately, not thinking to put Corn away first.

"Ah, Mogami-san, I was wondering if you could tell me where the nearest toilet is?" It was Tsuruga. She gave him directions and he thanked her, bowing his head slightly before pausing. "Mogami-san... what's that stone in your hand? It looks like one of those rocks sold in tourist shops."

"Wha- this is Corn, not a rock sold to tourists! He was given to me by the fairy prince!" She stopped, realizing what she had said. Going bright red, Kyouko slammed her sliding door shut. "Goodnight Tsuruga-sama!"

One year later, an article came out in a gossip magazine about Tsuruga Ren's secret relationship with LME's "Helpful Honey Kyouko-chan".

**Author's Note: Inspired by a conversation via review that I had with Akua revolving around the idea of getting everyone to Kyoto for Kyouko to fix their problems ("Helpful Honey Kyouko-chan" would be her television program where she fixes people's problems entirely on accident). I was going to write a section on Kanae, but I couldn't figure out how to fix her quickly... so just assume that between Maria and Ren there were some other visits.**

**And nothing else will ever be written by me with this particular rendition of Kyouko :D Bed time now; big family celebrations tomorrow, and I still need to wrap gifts (I knitted a bunch and what does my sister do for her contribution? Nothing. Stupid irresponsible Nee-chan!) and make origami santas for the tags.  
**

**Owari.**


End file.
